New World Order
by Darksouls18
Summary: The entire supernatural world stepped into the public eye wanting recognition and peace. Others are disappearing and the tension between humans and supe's are at an all-time high. I was trained at a secret government facility, the School. Trained to kill the supe's, but my latest targets make me feel things and question everything I thought I knew. Was war coming? Was I to blame?
1. Gamma Team

The blow sent me flying backwards. I crashed into the wall, crushing some of it and then collapsing to the dirty tiled floor with a groan as pain ripped through my back. I struggled onto my hands and knees, head spinning and world tilting. I could feel the blood sliding down my head and I swayed as I lifted myself up, shaking my head a little when the world blurred a moment. I must've hit my head harder than I thought.

The vampire stalked towards me, an Indo. Short for 'indestructible' because they almost were. The first thing were taught when fighting them, never let them get their hands on you because they are strongest creatures out there, physically speaking. And that is the first thing that happened, although I had just gone two rounds with his buddies first.

As he neared I noticed his irises were black, either in hunger or anger, I wasn't sure. Both probably.

He wasn't hurrying, moving at a human pace as he moved through the restaurant to me. He still didn't know we'd just killed his two travelling companions. "What was your name again, baby?" he asked me with a mocking tone.

If he listened, he would hear the others, then he'd realize how supremely screwed he was. A cocky smile tugged at the corners of my lips as I responded a little winded, "I'd ask for yours but when we rip your head off I don't think it'll matter much after that."

He didn't need to know I'd been hunting for him. He didn't know I was here to kill him, not the other way around.

He didn't catch on right away as he reached me, then I saw the flash of confusion, "we?"

I didn't respond because I heard the bell above the store entrance ring lightly. He paused, confusion filling his features as he turned slowly, seeing two others, men, dressed similar to me enter the building, one stayed by the door, the other stood at the other exit on the other end of the room.

He turned back to me, this time he laughed. "Playing dress up? What are you, a rock band?"

"Kill him already Mara," Jared said bored, arms crossed.

The vamp laughed again, turning to me, "oh I'm going to enjoy this, you do smell amazing."

"I know right?" he did a double take, as if I was slow and didn't realize what he was.

I was throwing him off. I don't why I screwed with them when I killed, probably because they all thought they were infallible and I liked to rub it in a little bit and mess with them mentally. I didn't wait for his response, I rushed for him, as much as I could when the world tilted a little when I got too much momentum. I jumped up, kicking off a booth seat and then wrapped my hands around his head and twisted us hard. I misjudged my landing, my foot got caught in the leg of a chair and I staggered. I threw Camdon a look when he sniggered.

The vamp wrapped his arms around me and before he could squeeze, I jumped up, kicking off the booth table and twisted my body so I faced him. I threw my arm out to catch my short sword as Jared whipped it at me and then shoved it into the Indo's chest with all my might. It didn't go in as deep as it needed to so I jumped and kicked out, sending the vampire staggering back, clutching his chest as the sword pierced his heart.

He was staring at me in shock, I spoke before he could, "yeah, yeah, no weapons can penetrate your skin, I've heard it all before."

Cam came up behind him and I watched as he brought his arm up, sword in hand and sliced his head off in one foul swoop.

The head popped off landing a few feet away, the sound echoed in my head, like glass breaking. I watched as the body started to fall forward and I stuck my arm out, pushing it sideways before it hit me. It hit the ground and Cam met my gaze, his eyes were heated and though he hadn't been fighting, he was breathing as though he had.

The Kill.

It had a strange effect on all of us.

My eyebrows went up, "he was mine."

He rolled his eyes, sheathing his sword to his back, "you have enough kills, leave some for the rest of us would you. Besides, you were playing with him."

"Which you shouldn't be doing, especially injured," Jared said with both concern and irritation.

He brought his hand up to the blood on the corner of my forehead and I backed up a step before he could actually touch me. "It's fine, just a flesh wound."

Jared scoffed, "you're swaying."

"I am?" I asked in surprise, and then realized he was right. I grabbed onto the booth wall and leaned back against it. "Now I'm not."

They shared looks, which they did often when I was acting like a smart ass. "Let's burn him and get out of here, we were expected back at the School twenty minutes ago," Jared said, nudging the body that was starting to heal, or attempt to heal, the wound in its severed neck area.

"That always freaked me out. Don't you guys think it's weird that their bodies repair themselves even though it has no head to give orders?" I asked, lifting a small box of matches out of my pocket and the small flask like container of chlordane.

"Nothing freaks me out anymore," Cam said shrugging one shoulder.

A scent less, high flammable and long burning fluid out of my left breast pocket, it left no trace and it would burn the body quickly.

I dumped the entire container over the remains and then lit the match and dropped it. I watched as the body burst into strange red and pink flames, high flames that made me step back as the heat licked at my face and arms.

They started towards the back hallway where the fire exit was. But I kept staring at him and as I watched him burn, a sensation washed over me. I stared into the fire, a fire that was quickly turning the flammable skin to ash I tried to make sense of what I was feeling. An uneasiness was filling me, which had never happened before, not once.

So why did this one vampire, more or less insignificant in comparison to all of my other targets, fill me with such a strange sense of dread and foreboding? My eyebrows furrowed, I stared into the fire as if it held the answer, and it sucked me in, like fire did, but it held no response other than to fill my senses as I focused harder.

"Mara?" I jumped, turning to stare at Jared's concerned expression, he'd come up right next to me.

Instantly, I backed away and started to where Cam was watching me. I didn't like having people close to me, touch me, not ever, as far as I knew. Jared reached me, looking like he was about to say something I didn't want to get into.

I cut him before he could utter a sound, "I'm fine." I swallowed hard, wanting to ignore the strange knot in my gut even though I had learned years ago to trust my instincts.

We got out into the employee parking lot, the world was silent around us. It was late, or early. It didn't matter, I had adjusted to the crap hours a long time ago. I climbed into the passenger seat of the black SUV waiting for us, Jared drove and Cam took the back seat.

He passed a large piece of gauze up to me and I pressed it to the wound on my forehead, biting back a flinch. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, my head was starting to throb, along with my lower back. Every time I shifted I could feel the bruising.

Carter was pacing, like he always did when he was frustrated. He was pacing the width of the hospital wing as the nurse looked over my wounds awaiting a verdict. "Well?" he finally snapped.

The nurse looked up, exasperated, "it's been five minutes, sir."

"I need to know if she's able to complete her next assignment."

The nurse met my gaze, and I realized why she hadn't say anything right away. Everyone knew I was immature, rebellious and reckless. But I completed assignments more quickly than everyone else. Telling our commanding officer that I needed a temporary leave, however short, because of an injury was going to be a big deal. Which is exactly what she was about to do.

I was one of the School's most prized assets, being seriously injured had everyone freaked out because it made them feel vulnerable I guess. I wasn't sure why it was such a big deal, I just know it had been and I'd gotten a lot of visits from the higher ups as well as doctors prodding over a broken arm.

The last time I couldn't go on assignment because of a broken bone, the nurse had gotten fired and that was after Carter blew up yelling and shouting that she was incompetent and didn't know what she was doing. It had been pretty epic and I had felt bad for the nurse. Carter could be kind of scary sometimes and he was going to put the fear of God in this poor nurse if she said I couldn't fight.

"I'm fine," I said to her, giving her a clear look to keep her mouth shut. "A night of rest and some decent food and I'm good to go, yes?"

She gave me a relieved look, not looking up at our superior she spoke, "yes. A day or two and she should be fine. Just some bruises and cuts. Nothing an asset can't handle."

Carter's tension melted away, "good. See me in my office tomorrow, 0800 hours."

Then he was gone.

The nurse sighed, and spoke as soon as the door was firmly closed shut. "You have a severe concussion, which is what caused you become unconscious earlier. It will take about a week to pass, give or take. You need to be very careful, the smallest knock to the skull can result in brain trauma. I advise not going on assignment Mara."

I shrugged, "I'll be fine. If you say anything to Carter, he'll lose it. I know you haven't been here long," I didn't even know her name, "but you must've heard what happened to last nurse that told Carter I couldn't be in the field. And if something happens, well, my doctors will patch me up. They managed to heal my broken arm in two weeks."

She frowned, "what doctors do you have?"

"Dr. Bennett and Dr. Owen. Why?"

Her frown deepened, "how long did it take for your fracture to heal?"

"Uh, I don't know, about twelve, thirteen days, something like that," I was watching her closely. The gears in her head were turning hard.

"B-But that's impossible," she said eyebrows furrowed. "That's impossible unless you're a-."

Anger filled me. "I'm human," who the fuck was she to accuse me of being an Other. "I was tagged human. We all were. We just showed the potential to have the speed and reflexes to fight."

She backed up a step, as if I'd slapped her, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insinuate-," I cut her off, "am I done here?"

She hesitated, "you should have one of your team keep an eye on you, wake you several times over the night. You may experience severe nausea, mental confusion, dizziness and a loss of balance. If you lose consciousness, you'll need to return for a further and more intense examination. Remember what I said, be careful, one knock to the head and you could get brain trauma."

"I'll be fine," I slid off the table, taking a breath when the world tilted. When it righted I left the hospital wing. Jared and Asher were waiting for me when I left the wing.

"Carter said you checked out, what took so long?" Asher asked me warily, both of them were looking me over for signs of a worse injury.

"It's fine. Just got a good night of sleep," I kept hearing that, 'that's impossible'. "Where is everyone?"

"Getting breakfast."

It was already going on six.

"Well, I need to crash for a bit, I'm beat. I'll see you guys in a bit, yeah?"

"Are you sure you're okay? You were out for nearly twenty minutes earlier, we had to wake you up," Asher said slowly.

I rolled my eyes, "I'm fine. Sheesh. You all act like it's a big deal. I was thrown into a wall, not over the Eiffel tower. Did you guys de-brief already?"

"Yeah, you?" Jared asked, we all turned and started down the hall, going towards the elevator.

I nodded, "Carter, verbally. Nothing special to tell, run of the mill Indo that thought he was tough shit and got beat by a sixteen year old girl."

"From what I hear, it was Camdon that cut off his head," Asher shot at me.

"I did all the work, like always."

"Yeah, right, you just like to scrap with 'em."

I sighed dreamily, "cause there so much more fun when they know there about to die."

My room was on the fourth floor, at the end of the corridor, the rest of my team was housed in the same wing. Jared accompanied to my room. I had always loved the interior and exterior of the school. It was classy. Though it was a literal school, it was like a boarding school, an expensive one with a hospital, a gun range and all the niceties a battle loving warrior could want.

My room was really basic though, I had few of my own personal items. We got a bi-weekly allowance, a pretty substantial one considering we never had to pay for food or rent or anything. But other than owning clothes, a phone and my own personal vehicle and a computer, I hadn't bought anything else. Never cared for owning stuff.

I had painted my ceiling though, it was a dark forest with a beautiful cascading water fall, the moon shining through the trees. It helped me sleep, comforted me when I woke from nightmares. To which I had many that I would never admit to.

When I woke up later on, it was late afternoon. I hadn't meant to sleep so long, but I guess the concussion put me out longer than normal. A lot of us didn't sleep much. Some of us only needed two to three hours of sleep and they were good to go. I needed about four hours. I had slept nearly ten and the reason I woke up had me scowling at the ceiling.

"Open up, bitch!" it was Delilah. Probably the most attractive female at the School, long strawberry blonde hair, petite with a heart shaped face and a slender nose, bright green eyes. Yeah, I noticed the guys checking her out a lot.

I turned and rolled out of bed, grumbling under my breath, unlocking the door and then dropped back onto bed. "What?" I asked when she frowned at me suddenly.

"You don't look so good."

"Yeah, well, I don't feel good either. Now what did you need that you had to wake me from my beauty sleep?"

Her expression became dead serious and her words had my eyes going wide in shock. "Gamma Team is gone, dead."

"What? How?" I was nearly shouting.

"They don't know, they're thinking their target got them. They were sent to L.A to take out the St. Delphi coven and never reported in. So a scout was sent to their last known location. They were all dead, I heard it was bad."

"My god, the entire team though?" I was shocked. Gamma team was comprised of six people. There have been deaths before, but never an entire team and never all at once. The last more than one person died in a team was six months ago, and that was in the span of two weeks. It was rare for any of us to die.

"Yeah. Wait, wasn't Dylan sent after the St. Delphi's?"

She nodded uneasily, "yeah, he went to L.A. and when he never returned, they found him two days later in the hotel room, his neck had been snapped."

Jesus.

I didn't know what to think. Most First Blood's were relatively easy to handle compared to other species that had an unnatural physical superiority.

"I-I don't understand, it has to be the St. Delphi's right? Who was the actual target? Why did an entire team have to go?"

It was also rare for an entire team to go at one target, unless, "they were sent to take out the whole coven?"

She nodded, "from what I heard. The original targets were the twins, Kale and Kade-mostly Kade-, rumour has it, he has a dark side and the higher-ups aren't liking the body count that's been covered up. But the Council is denying it because of their coven leader, Adam."

"Adam St. Delphi, he wants to take up the First Blood seat that opened, right?"

"Yep, they think Adam is behind the missing First Blood leader."

"The Council?"

"No, the humans, wait, maybe. But they wont prosecute one of their own. They never do."

Which is why we were trained. They weren't governing their clans like they promised. "So the First Blood leader Harken is really missing then?"

"Been going on three weeks now, handlers are dead. Not a trace of him."

"Shit," I shook my head. "So let me get this straight, Dylan was sent after the twins and they killed him in his hotel room? How did they know where to find him? Then when he turns up dead, they send Gamma after the whole coven? Aren't they worried about the back lash and are they even sure it was them?"

She shrugged, "they must have some evidence if they sent the entire team down."

"What are they going to do now?"

"Probably send another team down. My guess? Beta. I heard they already put your team on assignment. I bet you if Beta doesn't handle it right away then they'll send you guys."

Beta was pretty good. Almost as good as ours. "I don't understand something. If the St. Delphi's took out the entire Gamma team, why would they send us right away? Why didn't they send us to begin with? Were the best."

She snorted, "someone thinks highly of themselves."

"I'm serious. Think about it. Our team has the best record, why not send us?"

"You, probably," my face scrunched up, she continued, "the St. Delphi's are all over the media, with Adam running for Council and the other St. Delphi, Nathaniel being such a highly noted celebrity, they don't want this turning into a big thing."

Nathaniel was an actor, he was Tom Cruise famous. I didn't watch many movies, so I hadn't seen any of them, but I knew he was famous. Plus, the St. Delphi's ran many billion dollar companies. She had a point, I was reckless and if I was even glimpsed anywhere near him by the public it would be very bad for a group that wasn't supposed to exist. "The entire St. Delphi coven dying is going to be big news," I said after a thoughtful moment.

"Not if it's staged or something. I think that's what the Gamma team went to do, stage there death, an explosion, a hate group, something. You tend to drag it out and toy with people."

I glared at her, she held her hands up in surrender, "sorry, but it's true. You may be the School's greatest possession," my glare intensified, "but you're still a kid that has no sense of restraint. You're impulsive sweetie."

I sighed, "I know. I try not to be, but sometimes I don't even think, I just, react," I didn't know why. They tried all of the time to teach me and get me to grow out of it, simulations, training, guidance and counselling. But I always tended to act first and think later, especially when I was worked up.

"It's not your fault, you heard what Dr. Patterson said, being so heavily pressured and relied on at such a young age makes you act out."

I looked away, I heard what Patterson said. But it didn't feel right to me. I kept that to myself, because I didn't think that was it. "You're the youngest person here, the best soldier we have. You're bound to react a certain way sometimes," Delilah said gently.

I looked at her, hearing Patterson's words repeat over and over again. 'You were brought here an infant. You were raised in a hostile environment, trained to commit unspeakable acts upon creatures that were once human. You were raised with no love or true companionship, the love of a mother or father. Forced to develop a hate for those very creatures that may or may not have formed naturally. You need to be very careful because your future could be put at risk if you continue this way. Or worse, with your line of work you could lose your life to your own recklessness."

"What?" Delilah asked, looking confused.

"Nothing," I said finally, standing up and going to my dresser. "Where's Alpha?"

Alpha team was my team. Because we were the alpha dogs. There was only five of us, the smallest group, all of the groups had six members, there were eight teams. We used to have a sixth member, but he lost his life five weeks ago to a fey with an ability we hadn't known about. I'd killed him, slowly and painfully. My team never saw me the same way after that. It was one thing to drag out a fight, it was another to torture your victim, which is what I had done without even hesitating.

But thankfully, they hadn't reported me to my superiors.

"Training, like always," she said rolling her eyes and then bounced up on the bed, smiling widely. "Tell me, what's it like sparring with the hottest guys ever?"

I rolled my eyes, "there like brothers."

She sighed dreamily, "I wish we were allowed to date."

"Really? All the things you could wish for, that's it?" I was unimpressed. "Dating," I said in distaste. "Relationships are a joke. Carter told me I could have romantic relations at nineteen, but would you really want to date a human that might get killed because of you? Never being able to tell them were fighting a one-sided war?"

She frowned, "who said anything about dating a human? I can't wait to date Jared."

"We aren't to date within the School. It could cause a distraction," I pointed out, slipping on my training clothes. Shorts and a training bra.

She gasped, and I glanced back at her, "What?" she was staring at my back.

"What the hell happened?"

"Oh, that, an Indo threw me into a wall last night. No biggie. I feel fine." My back did anyway, my head was throbbing again. "Let's go spar. I have some energy to burn."

"You just want to kick my ass."

"Maybe."


	2. Do You Accept Your Mission?

Everyone was talking about Gamma team, or rather, their brutal demise. Word got out and a heavy tension had fallen over the camp. One coven took out six of ours in one fight, that didn't sit right with any of us. We were trained for war, so how had four First Blood's, taken out six of our highly trained, more experienced (then the rest of us), soldiers?

My team, Alpha was comprised of myself, being sixteen and Jared, who was twenty one, along with Asher, Camdon and Nicholas were both twenty. I had come to the school about a year after they had already been here, but I showed up an infant. The others were already ranging in ages four to ten.

I don't know if the others knew their families, but I know growing up our communication to the outside was non-existent. They had no contact with their families, I did always wonder if they knew where their children were and what they were doing. Had they given their kids up? Did any of their parents fight? Or were they stolen from their homes? Did they even know their families? I didn't know and I wasn't sure I wanted to open that can of worms.

I'm told I was orphaned and I never questioned it. Even if it was a lie, did it matter? I believed in what we did. Even though I was kind of sadistic, I believed in keeping humanity free. Many of us believed that we were being trained for an inevitable war between humans and Others. I would rather be ready and the forefront of a war to save humans, rather then get thrown into it and probably killed for being a civilian. What we did had purpose, it sure as hell beat sitting at a desk or flipping burgers.

I could not picture myself working the drive thru of a Burger King. Not because I thought I was above it, on the contrary, I didn't have the patience. I was violent and temperamental on a good day. I'd be fired within two days. Me flipping burgers, was like putting a rabid dog with a wounded kitten in a cage. Shit was going to go down and it would be bloody.

Eventually, I got sick of feeling all of the negativity and left the training wing. I almost wished my team was like me, but no, I struggled with my darker impulses and I had to check myself all the time. I wouldn't wish for them to fight with themselves mentally the way I did every day.

Everyone was quiet and kind of sad all day, I wasn't. I wanted to fight, that was pretty well my reaction to everything, Dr. Patterson loved to speculate over why. Gamma team. They were older then us, and we were family here. To everyone, our brothers had died, not just died, they were murdered. I couldn't sit around and soak up all of the grief and pain and anger, it was suffocating, making me want to actually hurt one of my team while we sparred.

I ended up spending time in the library brushing up on my Latin. I'd always picked up on languages easily, another trait the School liked. It made me ideal for overseas missions. I spoke five languages, I just picked them up easily, almost as if I hear them for a few weeks, and know them. Russian, Chinese, Spanish, French and German. Latin was a big one that I had been focusing on lately. I didn't mind learning new skills, I had always been a fast learner, whether it be book studies, combat or weapons. Learning new things meant more missions. The more the better.

At least I had a good work ethic.

When I went to meet up with the others during the profile of our latest target, Jared stopped me at the door. One look at him and I knew he was displeased. And when I say displeased, I really meant he had a pissy look on his face.

"No, you're out. I spoke to your nurse, you're lucky I don't report you or get you thrown out of training for a month. No training for a month, means no jobs for three times as long. You have a severe concussion, do you have a death wish?"

I rolled my eyes, "it's not a big deal, I'm not dying!"

"You could," he snapped, "do you want to die like Fynn?"

My jaw snapped shut at that, it was a low blow. Fynn and I had been close, as close as Jared and I used to be. But I pulled away from everyone when Fynn died. It had been my fault he died and no matter how many I killed, the guilt never lessened. A fey had a level three fire ability that I had thought was only a level five. He had burned him alive because my study of him wasn't done right. I know the others and the School didn't blame me, in fact, they said Fynn was the one that messed up, despite my saying otherwise. I would carry the guilt over Fynn until I died.

"Carter wants to see you right away. I didn't tell him you have a concussion and I didn't tell him your weren't coming. Sit this one out, please," Jared said slowly after a moment of tension filled silence.

The other three were staring at me, waiting for me to blow up or yell or something. Camdon, Asher and Nick, all of them were watching me like I was about to implode or explode or both. I bet they were just waiting for me to launch myself at Jared and hit him. That was pretty well my reaction to everyone when they upset me. Immature, I was so damn immature.

I didn't do any of those, "alright," I said quietly, relenting. He blinked in surprise, I continued, "I'll stay here. Can I at least see the dossier?" I was curious. I always wanted to know who was about to die, kind of morbid, but whatever.

He hesitated, and then sighed, rubbing his face as if I exhausted him. I probably did. "Fine, keep your nose out of it though, no research, nothing. Just relax until we get back, okay?"

Relax? He might as well have been speaking Aramaic. How does someone like me relax? I didn't think tanning on the beach and sipping on pina colada's would cut it. My idea of relaxation was sparring with the team that was about to ditch me over a stupid concussion.

I let the 'relax' thing go. "When are you leaving?"

"1200 hours." Soon.

I nodded, "when do you think you'll be back? Are you all going?"

"A few days. Carter wants us all to go. Just stay under the radar till we get back."

"Alright Jared. Good luck," he passed me the file, a thin one, but with about ten to twelve pieces of paper. I left the conference room, going up a flight of stairs to the second level offices. Carter probably wanted to yell at me again, it seemed to be his favorite past time.

When I peeked inside, I saw just one face. Whoever they were going at had a pretty long history. Most of the time there was only a couple pages along with a picture. Though it did appear to be a woman, I didn't keep looking through it because I reached Carter's office.

I knocked twice, "come in."

He was on the phone when I entered, and he looked troubled.

I observed him as he spoke over the phone, not really hearing his words, they were pretty vague, 'asset will be en-route soon', 'package received', 'asset will be secured promptly'. He was probably talking about Alpha's assignment.

Carter was mid-forties, he was a tall man, well-built, a commanding marine for two decades before he'd been enlisted at the School. He liked his job, I could tell. I also thought he just liked yelling and shouting orders at us all. I smirked a little to myself. When he glanced at me, he hung up without a stiff goodbye. Kind of felt bad for his wife, not that he wore a ring, but assassins didn't really advertise that kind of thing.

"How are you feeling?" he had an abrupt tone of voice.

He didn't care how I felt, so I just tilted my head, raising my eyebrows. He gave me an unamused look, "Dr. Patterson said you had made progress on your personality problems. I'm not seeing any improvement."

Oh, screw this guy.

"Huh, I always thought of them as attitude issues, not a 'problem' with who I am," I said thoughtfully. "Good to know you think I'm broken in the head."

He gave me a look of disgust, I always got the feeling Carter didn't like me, that looked confirmed it. "I warned them that you were too young to be out on missions. The only reason you haven't been pulled out is because you're the best at what you do."

I could feel it, he was going somewhere with this. He wasn't one to give compliments, but it figures he'd insult me first. He was right, my first mission I was thirteen where everyone else weren't cleared until they were at least sixteen. I'd been cleared because I was amazing at combat. My first solo mission had been at fourteen, also a record.

He lifted a several files, passing them to me. I sat them on my lap, opening the top one, the thickest one. I knew who it was instantly, the handsome classic features, strong jaw line, thick almost Mohawk length straight dark hair. Dark eyes and an aura of authority even in the image. It was Adam St. Delphi, and I had a feeling I knew who was in the rest of these files.

"The St. Delphi coven," I said, looking up at him in shock.

Remember that feeling of dread? It was back with a vengeance.

"Is there a problem?" he was mocking me.

"No sir, I had just been under the impression that because of all of the publicity surrounding them that you wanted this handled delicately," as delicate as an assassination could be, "That's not really me."

He gave me a hard look, "then make it you. We need our best in there. We cannot have another blood bath. Your record says your better than the whole of Gamma. Prove it."

I didn't ask to prove it, I liked being the best, I knew I was the best. I didn't care what anyone else really thought.

"You want me to take out the entire St. Delphi coven on my own?" I was stunned. "I- sir," I looked down at the images in front of me, flipping through some. The third picture? Was an apartment. Horror filled me, I stood up wide eyed, the files falling from my lap.

The picture was in color, blood was everywhere, the walls, ceiling, carpet, furniture and floors, pools of it, splatters. Body parts, everywhere. There wasn't a whole body anywhere, not even half of one. I could feel myself paling, I looked up at Carter. This mother fucker wanted me to go after the people that had done this.

Then it hit me, what this picture was of. Oh god, this was Gamma, the crime scene. "They slaughtered them. Gamma, their commanding officer was only nineteen," my voice had a dark edge to it that I felt sending a deep pent up emotion into my heart.

Anger filled me and he saw it. He smiled, smiled. He thought this was amusing. He thought my rage and need for vengeance was amusing. It wasn't. Not to me. Not when an entire group was ripped apart like this. "I heard what you did to the fey, Warren, the one that killed Fynn. I want you to do that again," he sounded amused and impressed now.

"What if I'm seen. I wont be quiet about this," I said coldly.

He shook his head, "no. You must handle this appropriately. Killing them is only half of the mission. Jason was never found. We believe they took him, interrogated him. Find him, bring him back here, take out the coven."

I looked down at the images and more anger filled me. I looked back up and he gave me a respectful nod. "You are the best, you are the only person we feel can get in, find our missing man and eliminate them. The bomb team will give you a device and show you how to use it. Once you have ashed the coven, blow up the house. It'll have signatures of a hate group that we've already arranged to take the fall."

"Do you have any Intel on where Jason is?"

"No."

"How do you expect me to find him then? He could be anywhere, what if the Council has him?"

"If the council had knowledge of us, we would know by now. We believe the Coven is trying to gain leverage for the seat. If Adam exposed us, he would have his position secured almost instantly."

My jaw clenched, the St. Delphi's were using one of ours for their own purposes. More anger burned in me. "Do you accept your mission?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good, you leave immediately for Los Angeles. Tell no one, -not even your captain-, of your mission," he gave me a hard look, "Handle it, Mara."

I intended to.

I scooped up all of the fallen pages and left his office.

I took the private jet to LAX, where a rental car awaited me. I brought very little, a bag of weapons, a bag that included a fucking bomb and another bag of clothing. I prayed I didn't blow myself up on accident. I dumped everything into the trunk and went to find the Four Seasons.

I had been to L.A before, and most of the time we were put in expensive places, or even condos depending on how many targets and what kind of job we were doing. Supe's tended to have big bank accounts and it didn't hurt to scout them out a little beforehand. Which is what I figured I should do first.

After checking in, I took a shower and by then it was around ten at night. Perfect for clubbing and from what I read, Nathaniel and the twins liked the club scene. The dossiers were okay, vague, but that was normal. It didn't matter. Rage and a need for retribution filled me every time I looked at the Gamma team crime scene. Then I thought about actually going up against them.

The moment I had landed, I had butterflies in my stomach. I didn't know why I was so nervous. Maybe because this was my first solo mission since Fynn. I'd been on lone projects before, but this seemed, almost out of my league. Not to mention the concussion, I had no business going out into the field alone, Jared would be pissed if he found out. I didn't understand why Carter didn't have the others come with me.

Did he think they couldn't handle it? It left me bewildered, we were the best team at the School, it made more sense to send all of us. We could handle the other woman afterwards. It made me think Carter expected something to happen, like me dying. Maybe he was hoping I'd get myself killed, at least that explained the solo assignment.

I mean, what did Carter expect me to do? Sleep with one of them to gain access to their manor?

I was skeptical and I figured I should do some recon before I even make a plan. I had to be smart about this. If four First Blood's took out one of our most efficient teams and Dylan who was one of our best scouts because he was stealthy, I needed to be smart. I was nervous about myself as well, I knew I had to be smart, but every single time I looked at their pictures, a thirst for violence filled me, so potent I felt like I breathed fire. I had to stop myself and do breathing exercises over and over again.

I slid into my car, blowing out a breath as I started it up. I hadn't put anything too fancy on, just some tight jean shorts and a loose see through, black chiffon tank top and a red bra. I had put my hair up in a clip loosely and put on some lip stick, but that was all. Then I had some knee high leather boots on, I needed a place to hide my blades.

I glanced at myself in the mirror and grimaced. I did not like wearing make-up, and I didn't like dressing up. I didn't like having attention on me, I hoped what I wore was subtle enough because I needed to blend in.

I started up the car and used the GPS to go to the club that had been in the files. The St. Delphi's had several businesses, Supernatural friendly businesses, and Eternal was one of them, the one they frequented the most. A lot of supe friendly places opened up after they had stepped into the media lime light fifteen years ago, because some places had banned supernatural's and part of the treaty between the humans and council were the tags. You can run someone's ID over the internet and find out if they were human or not.

Technically, I didn't exist. I had a fake ID, a good fake ID that was nearly impossible to see the difference. In fact, I had several. We all had several aliases, in case a mission went south somehow. I glanced down at my palm, seeing the small metal square in the skin under my thumb. If I hit it hard twice, it would alert my team and the School that I needed back up.

Gamma team hadn't even hit theirs, neither had Dylan. Which meant the St. Delphi's were fast and based on the fact that the entire whole of Gamma team hadn't even gotten out of the apartment, I should assume they were all well-trained. Carter wanted me to eliminate them in one go, but could I even do that? I would need to fight them all separately if I wanted to win. There manor was huge, I could probably cause some loud distractions to keep them divided.

Yeah, I could do this. They might be experienced and fast, but I was faster. I was better. I smiled at myself, filling myself with a self-assurance and pride as I thought about my history and scores.

I parked down the street, climbing out and making my way down the sidewalk. Humans and supe's lined up the wall of the club, I bypassed them, making my way to the door where two bouncers stood. They were Other, I assumed every employee and most of the clubbers were Other.

I let my confidence take hold, giving them a small smile, tilting my head. "Name?" the bouncer asked. He had a clipboard in hand. There was a list. Might be a problem.

"Do you really need one for an establishment like this one?" I asked coyly, giving him a wink and a flirty smile.

He smirked at me in amusement, "how old are you?"

"Again, does it matter?" I tossed him my ID regardless, and he spoke into a microphone. I waited patiently, crossing my arms and pushing my tits up a bit. They were eating that up, I barely managed to refrain from snorting in disgust. Males, human or Other, sex would always be on their mind. I hadn't thought about dating or sharing any kind of sexual experience with anyone. I didn't know why, no one held any interest to me, though plenty had shown an attraction to me.

After a moment, I heard a voice over a mic I didn't see, "let her in."

They stepped aside, I took back my ID, making sure not to touch them. An Other touches me and I couldn't guarantee a normal, non-violent reaction, however small or light the touch may be.

I heard people shout behind me in irritation. The loudest, "what? She's human! I've been waiting all night!"

I just shook my head in disappointment and stepped inside.


	3. A Dark Promise

Awareness was washing over me like a tidal wave. An awareness that made my skin crawl and gave me the urge to go ballistic and attack this entire club, regardless of the fact that I would probably end up dead if I did that.

I turned away as my vision blurred for a moment with the struggle inside of me. My eyes teared up and then a red haze slowly started to fill my head, my sight started to go red as well, as though I was looking through tinted contacts. I had never been in a place so full of them, so full of supe's. I had been to a house full, but never a room full of supernatural's, not this many. My hands clenched and my breathing elevated, my heart pounded. I hadn't even looked around, one step in the building and I was ready to go full on Ripper.

I was rarely in places so full of Other's for this very reason, my jaw clenched again and I stayed put as I struggled to keep from lashing out. I noticed a few people glance at me, probably hearing my heart rate. I had to calm down, I counted to twenty, I took several deep breaths. I did a breathing exercise I'd been taught.

I reminded myself of Jason. I had to do this right, to find him and save him. Lashing out and trying to take out an entire club with only two blades and a gun was not a good idea. I would lose, I told myself that over and over again, I would lose and I would never find Jason. Taking a deep breath, my vision cleared a little. I blinked a few times as I pulled back and tried to box up the violence inside of me. It was like a storm was in me. These people had no idea who they were now in the presence of.

I took another deep breath, and with a strain I wasn't used to, I went to the bar. It took everything in me to go straight there as calmly as possible. I needed a drink now, badly too. I was hoping it would help ease the tension in me. I felt like I was on crack or something. Crazy, violent, murder inducing crack.

Jason, I thought to myself, picturing the cute nineteen year old blonde that used to flirt with Delilah. I needed to find Jason. Having my face splattered all over the news would do the opposite in helping him. I kept picturing him, and it helped calm the storm a little.

The bartender, and Indo, reached me and I swallowed hard as that stupid feeling hit me again. "Can I get you something?" he asked me, eyebrows raised. He was focused on me, in fact, several other clubbing Others were, probably after the strange display I'd just given them. My hammering heart probably didn't help much.

"A shot," I paused, "make that four."

"Four?" he asked in surprise.

I nodded. "The strongest shit you got."

His eyebrows furrowed, "how old are you?"

Why did I keep getting asked that? "Old enough," I snapped. "Just get me the shots."

Christ, what did a girl have to do to get a drink around here?

"ID?" I slid it to him, sitting on a bar stool and waiting impatiently.

Finally, after running it a second time, he gave it back and then passed me a line of shots. I downed them all. Probably not wise to drink with a concussion and empty stomach, but I needed some kind of assistance before I lost it.

Forty five minutes, three more shots and a beer later and there was no sign of any of the St. Delphi's. I listened to the conversations, but the thumping obnoxious music made it hard to do and it didn't sound like any of them spoke about the coven I was hunting.

I had gone to the bathroom and found an elevator that required an access code to the top floor, the top floor with a blacked out office that was above the club. There were cameras everywhere in here too. I figured they wouldn't leave anything incriminating in a place with so much human traffic though. I was debating whether or not it would be worth it to try and break in during the day. I didn't think so, I could see they had state of the art technology, getting in and out unseen would be a bitch and I didn't think I had time for that.

"Beautiful girl alone is never a good thing," a teasing voice said, and I turned to an early twenties man coming to the bar. "A beautiful girl alone in a club, now that's just downright concerning."

He was a First Blood. I raked him over, scrutinizing him intensely for a moment. I suppose he was good looking, but if he even tried to touch me, I don't think I'd be able to stop myself from snapping his neck. I was barely hanging on by a thread as it was, the alcohol only helped so much. "I'm Anthony," he said, giving me a boyish grin.

I stared at him, raising my eyebrows and he chuckled, "this is the part where you tell me your name."

"Heather," I said to him evenly, keeping my heart in check. I didn't want any of these guys sensing a lie, and a human heart beat will stutter when they lie. We'd been trained to control our bodies, heart rate, temperature, breathing, etcetera. "How do you know I'm not waiting for someone?"

He grinned now, "well, Heather, I've been watching you since you entered the building. You haven't spoken to anyone, even really looked at anyone. So if you are waiting for someone, I don't think there coming."

"Fair point."

He ordered us both another drink, and turned back to me. "So, do you live in LA? Or are you visiting?"

"Visiting."

"Business or pleasure?"

I just smiled, "both I guess." It was business to the School, it was a game to me.

"Is your business pleasure, or is your pleasure business?"

My eyebrows furrowed and I couldn't help it, I chuckled, "my business is my pleasure, yes. I am a journalist at my university, doing some articles about the different establishments that the Council supports."

He was intrigued, which almost made me hesitate. "Yeah, what kind of stuff have you written?"

Shit, I should've picked something I actually knew about. I was an idiot. "Well, I was hoping to learn about the up and coming Council member."

He glanced around the room, and then up at the darkened office. "You mean Adam?"

"Is there more than one seat open?" I sounded mocking, damn. I needed to stop sounding so stand-offish when I spoke to supe's, if I kept it up he'd start to get insulted. If he got mad at me, it would draw attention and if he said something stupid, I definitely wouldn't be able to control my temper.

He frowned, "yeah actually, two Council members missing, that's big news."

I went on red-alert, straightening and staring him down, " _two_?"

"Yeah, Lady Afreda, fey queen was reported missing late last night."

Disbelief filled me. How did I not know about that? I knew, I'd been pouring over the St. Delphi dossiers and I hadn't been paying attention to the media. That would probably be all over the news. "I see. What does the Council say?" I asked him curiously.

He hesitated, "that there doing their best to return them to their families. They're pouring resources into the investigation, but as of this morning they gave up the case, as agreed during the accords and rights signing. President Christian Percius has given the investigation to their leading team in the FBI. The Fey king; Baltus, is a part of the team, mostly as an advisor and to over-see their progress, report back to the Council, that sort of thing."

Nothing of real interest. I was kind of surprised that they had actually agreed to let the humans take over the case. One missing First Blood council member, probably murdered, would be handled by Council guard, if a human committed the crime, they would face a human trial, if a supe did it, it was handled by the Council. But two missing Council members, world leaders, that's a national crime and the humans were now on the job. Council probably didn't fight President Percius because they were worried it would be taken as an insult. I briefly wondered what the chances were that they would be found alive. Highly unlikely.

I thought a moment, wondering if one of our teams had taken them out. But no, that didn't make sense. The Council kept their world in check, for the most part, without them there would be war between the human and the supernatural world. We would never touch a council member unless absolutely necessary.

Although Afreda was known for being powerful, she wasn't known for a body count or a violent history, the opposite really. She was well known for her charity work regarding the earth, she had a strong affinity for the earth element. Apparently she'd even warned authorities in Iran of a coming earthquake, she saved half a city when it came true, would've saved more, but the warning came a little late, they had less than six hours to clear out the city. Still, that was impressive, kind of sad that someone had abducted her, she was probably dead.

The other First Blood leader wasn't anything special though. I heard he was kind of a dick, I think that was why most people hadn't even blinked when he disappeared, people didn't like him. He had a seat because he was nearly eight centuries old and he had a strong military background, (with the US), and he was a decorated vet. Most of the council was older, like, centuries old, and not just a couple. I started to wonder how old Adam St. Delphi was. No one knew for sure, but I think the furthest record of him was four centuries back, and he never denied or confirmed it.

He must've been at least two, all of the Council seats were filled by Other's who'd seen more than two, aside from the witches. The youngest was a Light, who had replaced her teacher when they'd died in a shooting right before the truce between humans and Other's had been signed. Lights and Darks were more human than the other clans, they were humans born with magic. They didn't live much longer than two centuries, the oldest, the Council says, was a Light that made it to a hundred and eighty-nine years. They also were susceptible to human illness and disease, just not as often.

Someone laid there hand on my shoulder, and I reacted without thinking. I gripped their wrist, bending it and twisting them and shoving hard and then kicking their feet out and putting them on their knees. The entire club froze and the music cut abruptly, the whole room was staring at me, jaws to the ground.

I was to keep a low profile, I just blew that to hell.

I was breathing hard, I had forgotten where I was. Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

FUCK.

I swallowed thickly, backing away from the First Blood. "I'm so sorry, you startled me," I mumbled, I made my way for the door, the crowd stepping out of my way, whispering as I bolted.

I burst out into the street, almost running as I moved to get away. I rounded the corner to the alley to get to the parking lot when the exit door of the club burst open. Anthony and another man stepped out. I didn't recognize him other than that he was First Blood as well.

I tensed, "look, I'm sorry. Don't turn this into something it isn't," I said coldly.

Anthony snarled at me, "you think you can just attack one of our kind like that bitch? You wont get away with it!"

I sighed, "you know, I was told to take it easy, not hit my head. So, if were going to play, no touching from here," I put my hand at my neck and then brought it up to demonstrate, "to here."

"What the fuck are you on?" the other vamp sneered at me, walking towards me.

I didn't back away, I didn't cower. I did the opposite, I straightened, staying loose but alert and I kept my chin up. "I don't want to fight you, don't make me hurt you."

Anthony laughed, "did you just threaten me? You're fucking dead, you whore!"

I sighed again, "why are you First Blood's so vulgar, you're almost as bad as werewolves. Or _me_. But really, I thought you were supposed to have class."

Rolling my shoulders and stretching a little. They thought that was hilarious, then I lifted my right arm, and gestured for them to come forward. "Let's play."

"Take her," Anthony shouted.

The unknown one came at me first. He rushed me and I side stepped, throwing my fist in his face and then leaned back out of his reach as he swung at me. I dropped low and swung my leg out, tripping him and sending him down to his back and then slid the blade out of my boot. I jammed it into his chest, his heart.

I was breathing hard and smiling widely as he gasped and twitched on the ground as his eyes turned to ash. This feeling filled me, causing me to shiver a little at the pleasure of the kill. I don't know what it was, it was addictive the feeling of killing them. A rush. Like a drug. Made me want more. I wanted more. I wanted to _kill_ more, and Anthony was next.

I rolled my shoulders and turned back to him, who was staring wide eyed. "Y-You killed my brother."

I had to leave that blade in there for a minute or he could heal. I slid the other blade out, twirling it as I blew out a breath. "I did, whatcha gonna do about it?"

A growl of rage left him and he rushed me. He was faster than the other one, a result of his anger. But he was also sloppy because of it. I side stepped the punch and then leaned back when he swung at me with his other hand. I brought my own blade up, slicing him from the left side all the way up to his right shoulder. He growled even harder as the blood seeped out of his clothing.

I bounced on my heels a little, "what? No witty last words?"

"What are you?" he growled again, slamming into me now. We crashed into a dumper and I lost the blade when he snapped at me, trying to take a chunk out of my neck. I brought my knee up into his gut as hard as I could, then I brought my cupped hands down on his face. I sucker punched him a second time and then kicked out, sliding to the ground and into a puddle of disgusting water when I lost my balance.

"Ugh, gross," I felt a hard fist meet my jaw and I fell to the ground onto my side. I grunted, feeling my face begin to throb. He was suddenly on top of me, and when he struck out, I forced my body sideways, grabbed the blade and as he lunged for me again, I slid it up into his jaw and into his skull. He froze on top of me, and I could see the silver of the blade in his mouth.

His eyes turned to ash. I pushed his body off of me, rolling out of the water and rubbing my aching jaw. I shook my head as the world blurred, and I fell over when I took a step forward. The whole world was just spinning now. I hadn't even gotten the thrill of a kill, the concussion was interfering. This stupid First Blood brought it back full force when he punched me in the face.

I groaned as nausea filled me, and I rolled onto my stomach, dry heaving a little. I blinked hard, trying to stay conscious. Spots were filling my vision. I staggered up, using the brick wall to keep upright and when the world spun I had to lean back against it, head rolling from side to side.

" _Fuck_."

I lifted up a rock, nearly falling over again and then turned and focused on the camera staring down at me. I hoped no one had seen this whole fight, I didn't think so, no one had come to aid the First Bloods. I hoped it wasn't recording. I was putting a lot of faith in that little camera that could mess everything up for me. Once I had my focus for just a second I whipped the rock at it as hard as I could and it shattered.

It took a couple tries just to get my blades back, and they were already starting to crumble and fall apart. When a First Blood dies, they fall apart from the inside out, like burning wood or something. They turned to ash, it took about an hour, the older they were the faster it happened. They couldn't repair themselves like Indo's as long as they were stabbed in the heart the right away.

After a few minutes, I stumbled into the parking lot and made it to the car. I didn't think I should be driving, but I couldn't leave the rental here. I also couldn't stick around to make sure they ashed, or even to hide them. If someone, human or not stumbled onto the scene I doubted I could handle another fight or out running the human police. I couldn't even walk a straight line at this point.

Oh god, I was going to get into a car accident if I wasn't careful.

I swallowed the strange cottony feeling in my mouth, my mind was fuzzy, my vision kept blurring and the world kept tilting.

This was a problem. I needed a new hotel now, and I needed a doctor and to let Carter know I had to kill two First Blood's. He was going to be pissed, god, Carter was always pissed off with me. I was supposed to handle this properly and killing two First Blood's and attracting attention to the St. Delphi's business was not a good thing.

It took a while to get back to the hotel. My jaw and cheek had a fist sized bruise on it. My gut was churning and as soon as I stumbled out of the car, I threw up. All the booze came up, which was not fun. When I was done, I was sweating and my chest was hurting.

Mumbling a curse, I went inside. I had to get my stuff and get out of here, I also had to ditch the car. Damn, could I even do all that with the world constantly spinning and blurring.

Going into the elevator, I leaned against the wall, pressing my head to it as we went up. I nearly got sick again as the weightless feeling hit me every time the elevator stopped.

I stumbled into the room, grabbing up my bags and clothing. I could hardly see straight by the time I had shoved everything into it. I had to use the wall just to stay upright. This was so not good.

I kept widening my eyes when that feeling of exhaustion hit me. I would pass out soon too, I needed to act fast. I kept forcing my eyes wide, it made the throbbing in my head worse but it kept my eyes from sliding shut as my body tried to force myself to shut down and slip into unconsciousness.

I made my way to the door, and when I opened it, three men stood on the other side. I recognized them instantly. The St. Delphi's. Then they doubled when my vision doubled, then tripled. It was scary seeing that many of them.

My breath caught, the bags dropped and the world went dark for a second. Then it came back as I fell onto my ass as they stepped into the room.

I backed up on my elbows a little, breathing hard as Kale closed the door. I tried to get back up and the world spun, I reached out, gripping the chair and it fell over with me. I backed up another pace and the world spun and darkened yet again.

As it came back, Kade St. Delphi was in front of me. His eyes were dark and he had a twisted gleam in his eyes. "Saw the fight in the alley, color me impressed. Let's see how good you really are."

He reached out for me and I kicked the leg of the chair, and then kicked it again, sending him staggering back. I rolled onto my stomach, trying to get up and when I did, a hand grabbed my arm, ripping me up off of the floor.

It was the twin, Kale.

I struggled, rather pathetically and then groaned as my head throbbed even more. "What's your name?" Adam asked.

It hit me. They had no idea who I actually was.

I couldn't help it, I laughed, a little hysterically.

"Guess," I laughed breathlessly at the glare he had on his face. Maybe it was my messed up brain but that was suddenly really funny.

Until Kale's grip on my arm tightened so hard and fast that I cried out in pain. I turned and struck out, the throw was sloppy and he growled lowly. I kneed him, shoving him away and falling backwards once again.

I blinked hard, trying desperately to get my bearings. Then Adam was above me, frowning down at me. "What's wrong with you? It didn't seem like you were hit that hard and you barely made it your car without passing out."

I just groaned in response, I could hardly think. I was spun, this whole situation had me thrown. How did they find me so fast? What did they want? How come they hadn't just killed me? Who cares? Didn't I have a gun hidden in here somewhere still? I couldn't think right, where was it?

Adam continued, sounding more curious then angry, "What's your name, your _real_ name? I know the ID you gave the club is a fake. Who are you?"

Oh yeah, it was under the bed, I could reach it from here!

"The girl that's going to put a bullet in your skull," I reached for the gun that was just a foot out of reach, lifting it as quickly as I could.

A shot went off, getting the ceiling when he backed up a step in surprise.

The twins lunged for me and Adam grabbed my arm, slamming it into the ground so hard I had to release the weapon, but I squeezed off the trigger one more time, nearly getting him in the leg. I twisted, kicking out and he growled, "enough! We just wanted to talk, we know the First Blood's instigated the fight, what I want to know is how you were able to fight them in the first place. But if you don't stop, I'll just kill you now!"

I laughed a little, as he forced me up onto my feet again. Then Kale's grave voice spoke up as I swayed, world spinning once more, "Adam, her hand!"

Adam lifted it up, and then his eyes widened when he saw the metal disk. Then they narrowed, and slowly, he turned a blackening gaze on me. "You're one of the hunters."

I didn't see it, I was too far gone to keep up. But a moment later, I was up against the wall with my arms twisted behind my back. I winced as pain shot through my arms and spine, he was holding me so hard I worried he'd dislocate my shoulders soon.

"Who are you people?! Who's training you? Where did you come from and why are you here?" he growled and when I didn't say anything, he squeezed my arms harder.

I gasped in pain, "oh god!"

Trying to pull free and he let out a growl, "doesn't matter, we'll find and kill all of you," his teeth ripped into the right side of my neck, _hard_.

I screamed.

As the pain faded I felt something else. A sensation ran through me, causing me to tense and moan at the same time. I had never felt anything like it, a pulse went over my skin, like being touched in the most intimate way, but _everywhere._

I felt Adam now too, as though he wasn't about to rip out my throat. I felt him as though he were in my mind. As though there was a flow between us where our skin met. A force that ripped through both of us, and I could feel it rocking me to my core.

I didn't like any of it, but then I felt the pull of his feed and the venom at the same time, stealing any ability I had left to push him off. All of the strength left my body and I slumped. I would've passed out too if it weren't for the fact that he pulled back as soon as he took in the first pull, releasing me with a roar of total fury that made the room shake, shoving himself away from the wall, and me.

I slid to the ground, mind an even bigger confused haze now. "Adam, what the hell just happened?" Kale's voice shook with an intensity I didn't recognize. As though we'd all felt that ripple of, _whatever_ that was.

My head rolled to the side and I tried to lift it, but only managed to for a second before it fell back down as the world spun like a tilt-a-whirl. Adam, he was growling, hard and low and he was staring at me as though he wanted to rip my head off, and I didn't understand why he hadn't. I didn't understand why he stopped. What the hell just happened?

I'd been bitten by a vampire before, and never had it made me feel anything let alone connected to them. As though there was some kind of unseen bond there. It wasn't just Adam though, it was all of them, even the one that wasn't there, Nathaniel. I could almost feel something between all of us that couldn't be seen, like a pull to them. It made me hate them a little bit. I hated the thought of them having any power over me, especially since they were about to kill me. The most pathetic feeling burst inside of me, I didn't want _them_ to kill me.

Kale and Kade were breathing hard too, staring at me. All of them were staring at me with pitch black eyes that burned into me. "We can't kill her, take her to the manor, now!" Adam sounded furious.

They moved for me, but I managed to dredge up the small amount of energy I had left and I crashed through the windows of the balcony and forced myself over the ledge, hearing Adam's even more furious roar follow behind me.

I was airborne for ten seconds, ten seconds to suck in a breath and pray to God that the pool I was about to dive into wasn't shallow or that I wouldn't miss it. I pulled my body back as much as I could as I saw how close it was going to be.

I hit water. I'd landed in the pool. But I was exhausted and now I was soaked. The humans were crowding and thankfully, one of the men in the pool wrapped his arms around me and lifted me up to the surface. I gasped, shivering and cringing as the chlorine burned at my wounds.

They shouted questions as he helped to the ledge and I climbed out of the water with the help of two other humans. I couldn't hear there shouting, all I could hear was Adam St. Delphi's roar. I looked up, swallowing hard and when the world came back to a singularity, I couldn't see them. They may not have jumped after me, but they weren't about to let it go that easily.

I got up unsteadily, shoved people away and staggering back into the building and rushing through for the front lobby. I was just getting to the doors on the street when the elevator dinged, awareness shot through and I knew, I just fucking _knew_ it was them in that elevator.

I glanced back, seeing all three of them step out of it, and then they turned as one and saw me. For one long moment as they pushed through the people between us and I kept backing out onto the street, Adam and I stared at one another.

His eyes were still pitch black and I could feel the rumble of him growling as though he was inches away. I could feel it in my gut, as much as I could still feel his body pressed against mine, his mouth on my neck with the intent to feed and kill me. I still felt everything as though it were still happening, a shiver ran through me.

In the depths of his darkened gaze was a promise that made this fear grow inside of me. _This wasn't over_. Not by a long shot. He was coming after me, and he wasn't going to stop until he had me. That fear filled me now and I bumped into a parked car.

I glanced around quickly, and using the vehicles to help me keep upright, I ran two cars lengths and climbed into the back seat of a cab. "Go," I shouted, "just drive! Drive, now!"

As they neared the car, I hit the locks and then we were pulling away.

I collapsed onto the backseat, heart pounding, eyes blurring and panic filling me. I was scared. Which was unusual for me, I had never felt actual gut wrenching fear in a very long time. But the thought of the St. Delphi coven filled me with it.

If I never saw them again, it would be too soon.

"Where to miss?" the cabby sounded hesitant. "Do you need a hospital? Police? Who were those men?"

"Just drive."

I had no supplies. I didn't know what to do or where to go and I was still incredibly freaked out. I wanted my team, badly.

I wasn't sure if Adam and the others might try and follow, so just in case about four blocks away, I got the cabby to let me out at a mall close by, where I climbed into a different colored taxi and left again.

Jared was going to be so mad at me. I had nearly gotten killed, in fact, I should be dead right now. Why didn't they kill me? Why did Adam order them to take me to their house? I didn't get it. He was deadest on killing me, so why hadn't he? Just because of what I'd felt? Had we all felt that, they must've too, it must've been the reason that made him hesitate and stop. It was the only explanation and yet it left me with even more questions.

What the hell was that? I'd never heard of a bite causing a physical reaction that was almost, _emotional_ , before. It was one thing for the venom to weaken the victim and sometimes even make them pass out, depending on how strong the venom was. But never had I heard of someone experiencing a sensation like that, and I'd never experienced that myself either. I'd been bitten by a First Blood once before and the venom itself hadn't even affected me, yet Adam's made me feel like I'd been hit by a freaking semi-truck.

Why had we all felt it? Had Nathaniel felt it, he hadn't been there and yet for a moment there, I felt him too. It was like they had all been touching me, _everywhere_.

What the hell was that?

And why was I so scared of seeing them again? Actually, if I were being honest with myself, I wasn't just scared, I was downright terrified of having another confrontation with them. I'd rather they all tried to kill me, that I understood. What just happened left me with confusion and hesitancy. Everything felt so wrong now.


	4. Party Crasher

I stumbled into the apartment where the Gamma team had been killed. I had no more money on me after the absurd amount I'd had to pay both cabbies, I did have my card, but I couldn't risk going out like this. I couldn't even keep upright and I was still soaked.

Sinking onto the couch, I felt uneasy seeing all of the blood stains everywhere. I could taste the stale stench of death on the tip of my tongue and it made my hair stand on end.

I should not be here. But this is the last place I figured the coven would look for me.

Rubbing my sore face, I sighed and then went in search of a cache. Every School location and safe house had at least one hidden cache. It was just a matter of figuring out where they were, I just hoped they hadn't been removed during the clean-up for the Gamma team slaughter. The hidden supplies for this apartment were under six ceramic floor tiles in the bathroom.

I pulled the back out, going into the living room and sitting at the dining table to open it up. Inspect it's contents I found; money, first aid supplies, gear, two guns, a short sword and two blades. Then several burner phones. Good.

First things first, I cringed and I lifted up the first burner phone and dialled Carter.

I didn't greet him, and he didn't greet me. I readied myself, he was going to be pissed. "Carter, I messed up."

"I suspected you might. You aren't dead, so it can't be that bad."

It was.

I looked around the room, shifting uncomfortably. God, those blood stains could've been me less than an hour ago, more unease filled me. "I was forced to kill two First Blood's outside of the St. Delphi club, Eternal. I don't think it was recorded, but it was seen by the St. Delphi's. They know I'm a hunter, but they didn't know until they saw the panic button. If they have Jason, he hasn't said anything, but they were able to put two and two together based on my hand."

He sounded, displeased to say the least, "Is that all?"

"I-," my jaw clenched tight as a tightness grew in my gut at the thought of telling him the rest. I chose my words carefully, "they came to the hotel, confronted me, I made it out alive."

"Are you wounded?" his voice was changing, an anger and strange edginess I wasn't accustomed to.

"Not particularly. I have a slight concussion now though."

"Did any of them bite you?"

I froze. My answer came swiftly, "no."

I had this feeling in my gut, it was screaming at me to keep my mouth shut and not to say anything about the bite or what happened when Adam's teeth sank into me. Or him saying to capture me alive.

His voice was lethal, "Are you certain?"

I snorted, now he just made me sound like an idiot if I couldn't tell if I'd been bitten or not. " _Yes_."

"Where are you now?"

"A safe place."

"Good. Complete your mission, we will send resources. Alpha is still out in the field, if you have not completed your assignment before they do, they will be sent to assist you."

I blew out a breath. "Yes, Sir."

"Good."

He hung up.

I swore in every language I knew, throwing the phone across the room and shattering it. I didn't want to stay here. I didn't want the St. Delphi assignment. I didn't want to go anywhere near them again. There was this intensity I didn't like, being around them made me all sorts of awkward and out of depth. I had felt it, even as out of it as I had been. It was not a good sign.

I wanted to take a shower, wash all of the grime, chlorine and blood off of me, but I was too tired. So I slipped off the seat and went and looked over the rooms. The guest room was the only one that had very few blood stains anywhere, and thankfully, none were on the bed.

I desperately wanted to open up the window and get the scent of death out, it was making me more nervous then I already was. But I didn't want anything to give away my presence.

I fell onto the bed, rolling onto my back with a groan and then let myself fall into a restless sleep, filled with a constant replay of their darkening eyes, elongating teeth and the lion resembling-roar Adam had.

When I woke up, I don't know how long I'd slept, but the world didn't spin as bad and my head didn't throb like I was constantly having it hammered into concrete. I sat up, rubbing my face tiredly, running a hand through my hair.

I sighed, thinking of my team.

I needed them. _Badly_. Should I call Jared? Could I? And say what? Carter hadn't said I could call them and before I'd left he'd told me this was a need-to-know mission. Maybe I could wait until they could come help me? But no, Jason was still out there somewhere, probably on their property, possibly being tortured. I couldn't afford to leave him at their mercy, we may be trained to withstand pain and torture, but we couldn't last forever and eventually, he could give up some information. Any information that was in the wrong hands could result in more deaths.

Maybe I could just call Jared? He would be so mad that I went on assignment, that I agreed to go after the St. Delphi coven and good lord, I could just imagine how much yelling he would do when he found out they were now hunting for me.

Bitter irony there.

Hunter being hunted by the ultimate hunter.

With a deep unease, I lifted myself up and took easy steps to the bathroom. As I looked myself in the mirror waiting for the water to heat up, I found I didn't recognize myself.

It made no sense. Fighting, having a close call, it never fazed me. Bruises on my face, pale and sweaty, nothing I wasn't used to seeing in the mirror. Yet, for the strangest reason, I felt like I wasn't seeing myself clearly, it felt like I was looking back at a long lost relative. I felt off, not right in my skin and I kept twitching. Maybe I just need a shower. That must be it.

I slipped off the ripped, bad-smelling clothes and stepped into the tub. I sat down when the world blurred a little. After a few minutes, I turned my head, and found myself level to a light red stain on the wall to my right. I pulled my knees up, wrapping my arms around myself and just, stared at it.

I wondered whose blood it was, I could find out, but touching it would make me feel something I didn't want to. Blood always had a strange effect on me, I used to have dreams that I was bathing in blood, bloody showers, slicing throats and having it squirt across my face. I would wake up a sweaty mess as though I'd dreamt of sex or something. My therapist was deeply concerned and I lost three days because of it, still never found out what happened. I was told I was hit over the head during an assignment, but I had no recollection of even being on assignment. She seemed to think they had stopped, I figured she hypnotized me or something, but I didn't like blacking out, so I told her I didn't have any more bloody dreams and she bought it.

I just figured I was blood thirsty. I didn't view death the same way as others, even my team and friends. We didn't see things the same way. I was the only one that relished the kill, the only one that enjoyed taking lives as much as I did. I know I shouldn't, it was twisted and wrong, but it was what it was. I'd given up making up excuses for how I felt and thought a long time ago. As long as I got the job done, did it matter how? I didn't think so, and I wasn't in a straightjacket, so I assumed the School agreed to some extent.

I climbed out when the water ran cold, wrapping a half folded bed sheet around my body. All of the towels had been knocked into a pool of blood and they had been removed during the clean-up. Quite a bit of stuff had been taken out of the apartment, anything with blood or a body part on it, even a few couch cushions. I didn't want to think about why they were gone too much.

I glanced back at myself in the mirror, stilling as I glimpsed the torn skin on my neck. I reached up, touching the tender flesh. It wasn't like in the movies where you had two tiny little holes in your neck, now this was an actual bite, and it hurt like hell when it happens, until the venom hits you anyway.

The bite was healing well considering the concussion slowed things down for me, so it was still raw and a little bloody. I would get stitches but they would've needed to be removed within a day or so. Wasn't worth it, I'd just need to keep an eye on it so it didn't break open and bleed again. We healed well, especially me, I was always a fast healer. It was why I hadn't been very concerned about the concussion. I kind of was now though. The fight with the two First Blood's, Adam's bite along with the fall into the pool, I hoped I wouldn't start blacking out.

I looked up at my own eyes again, wondering why I still felt so strangely. I felt like I couldn't shake something off. Like something was layered over me and I couldn't get rid of it. Which still made no sense, I hadn't felt that way before the St. Delphi's attacked, it happened after the bite. But, I knew all about First Blood bites and their venom. It made no sense that a bite would make me feel this way.

Others at the School had been bitten before and they were fine. In fact, the venom hadn't even affected them, they basically brushed it off and killed the vampire. I had been bitten once before, a long time ago during one of my first missions, and it had no effect on me whatsoever. Yet, when Adam's venom hit me, it was as though I had been hit with a sedative or something. Venom shouldn't affect me, it shouldn't affect any of us. I was told it was impossible, so why did his? Would all of theirs? I wasn't up for the chance to find out.

I sighed, wishing I knew why I felt the way I did. It had to be the concussion, right? The concussion must've left me susceptible to the venom. That had to be it. What else could it be? We were trained to with stand that kind of thing, being drugged, venom, wolf bites, we developed immunities to that kind of thing. The concussion must've left me more off then I realized.

"God how I hope that's it," I muttered to myself, leaving the bathroom and getting into some clothing. The Gamma Team had a girl in their ranks and she was about the same size, so her gear fit pretty well. She was a little taller than me, but it didn't matter much when you're wearing shorts.

I didn't want to go out, I _really_ didn't. I knew I was probably over reacting, now that I'd rested, a long time too no less, that I would be able to handle them no problem. Still, I didn't want to go looking for the St. Delphi's. I wasn't afraid to admit they made me feel a certain way that should've been impossible. I had no business going anywhere near them, someone else at the compound should handle this, even an entire team. Carter did have a point though, I was the best to handle this, maybe the St. Delphi's had this effect on all of us. Maybe it was better if the best at the compound took them out. Send the bloodthirsty one after them, as opposed to a not-so-crazy one. It made a certain amount of sense. Especially considering so much _wasn't_ making sense nowadays.

Now I couldn't help but wonder, did Carter know about the effect they had on me? It explained his reaction to the possibility that I'd been bitten. He never said anything like that, and not one of Gamma team had been bitten, at least, there was no venom in what was left of them and they were so torn up that a bite couldn't be identified. No, Carter would've warned me about a potential effect from a bite.

I was procrastinating, taking my sweet time getting dressed and stretching a little. I knew I had to go look for Jason. Which meant probably their manor, where some of them were most likely to be at the time. A knot formed in my gut at the thought of another face-to-face with any of them.

But I knew Jason was still out there. So I steeled myself mentally, and suited up. Putting on a new, still tagged, training bra, my cropped bullet proof vest and everything I might need but secretly hoped I wouldn't, which was a first.

Then I put on a tight long sleeve zip up. I braided my hair, and then pulled the hoodie up over my face. I'd borrowed some of her short hiking shorts and then my boots, thankfully, were dry after my dive into the hotel pool last night. I slid the weapons into a holster down my lower back, sliding a sword into a sheath below the sweater. I slid two other blades into my boots.

Already exhausted and nervous, I headed out.

To the humans, I simply looked like a girl that liked to wear a lot of black. I kept my hood up, I didn't need to be seen, I would draw attention with the heavy bruising on my face.

I started with a new rental car. A simple dark blue Mazda two door. Nothing fancy.

I wanted to get this over and done with.

I kept thinking about calling Jared and the others. Since Carter had told me not to say anything to anyone and I think it was because he knew Jared never would've allowed me to go at the St. Delphi's alone, I restrained the urge to seek them out. Which I now thought was a very stupid idea. And it wasn't even mine! If I had actually been asked if I wanted to take them out on my own after they annihilated Gamma, I would've said a resounding, 'fuck no! That is a team mission', so why the hell was I the one cleaning up their mess?

It didn't make any goddamn sense!

I was starting to think they were trying to get me killed, but even that made no sense. I meant too much to the School, losing me would take a serious hit to their credibility.

I had to stop thinking about this and focus on the task at hand. Putting my game face on, I went to the their main home address. It was a property with a mansion nestled in the woods, a good amount of space and forestry to move around in. They were right on the edge of L.A, the place was gated as well.

I drove the area a little bit, taking in what I could see. These guys liked their privacy, the trees were thick, the gate high. I didn't think it would be electrified, because only an idiot (apparently that was me) would try sneaking into a First Blood home. After scouting out the area for a few hours, I went to a nearby internet café and looked them up. It was a Friday, which meant they were probably going out tonight.

They weren't.

I didn't know if what I found was a good thing or not. I would've preferred the place empty. For the first time, I don't know, ever, I did not want to go head to head with my assignment until absolutely necessary.

The St. Delphi's were having some kind of solstice celebration at their home. You needed an invitation just to get through the gate. But some supe's could seem kind of human, newborns, consorts, Light's and Dark's; which were just terms for witches and where they learned the craft from.

I figured some of the guests would be government officials or other human celebrities, right? God I hoped so, because from what I looked up, this was probably my best bet to get into their house. There better be humans there or I would be killed the moment I stepped inside.

I glanced around the café, and then sighed and looked into my bank account. I would need to dye my hair, get make up and formal wear for something like this. High society, expensive, I would need to blend in. I would also need an invitation, but looking up the guest list, an idea occurred to me. There was a live band. Shit, could I even sing? I wasn't sure, the staff wasn't human, so either I got an invite or I tried my hand at live singing. And then I would have to risk that one of the St. Delphi's had already met the singer.

No. I would need something better than that. I couldn't have anyone looking at me. It was tempting though, hiding in plain sight, I could move around the property without needing an excuse. Instead I decided to take out a human witch. The Light's would be easiest, but Light's were more or less good and I didn't like killing possible innocents. So I decided to go with a Dark.

Dark's were just witches that practiced less ethical magic, taking energy from humans, messing with the natural order of things, etc. There were laws restricting access to certain high level spells, and each spell and witch were ranked by the governing witches. As long as I went in alone, didn't anyone who I was supposed to be unless I had to, kept mostly out of sight and didn't let the St. Delphi's get a look at me, I should be fine.

Right? Doubtful. I had a strong feeling that shit was about to go down, but I also felt like I needed to be there. I really didn't want to be anywhere near them again, god, I was being pathetic.

Four hours later it was nearing nine o'clock and I couldn't help the sigh I made as I looked in the mirror. I looked even less myself then I did this morning.

"Fuck, Jason you better be in there."

I was wearing an open back dark blue halter dress, floor length, with some small silver rhinestones across the bust and a slit up the right side. It was nice enough, I just felt so wrong in it though, and the halter top was the only one that covered up the bite on my neck, the dress was good for the blade sheath. I had to wear my gear beneath the dress, tight spandex shorts and an equally tight halter training bra. I had some blades stashed along with a gun in a sheath around my thighs. I would have to ditch the heels if something happened.

I'd popped a few Percocet when my head began to hurt again, and I'd even taken a short nap in the hopes of being better rested for tonight. I put on some light make up, having died my hair brown as soon as I had decided on my plan. It was now a dark burgundy color. It had been a deep red before, and I didn't like the way it smelt now, but it had to be done. I put on some make up and contacts, making my eyes a muddy brown instead of their usual light blue.

It would have to do.

It was taking a lot of mental pep talks to do this. I had felt off all day, and my head was starting to hurt again, but I was pushing it back. The dress was not helping my comfort level any either. I didn't need to stay all night, I just needed to get in, search for Jason and get out.

About a mile away from the house, I saw the vehicle I had been waiting on, I pulled out of the small path I'd been on and followed after it. I drove passed fast, and then went forward a little, before turning the car sideways and forcing them to a screeching halt before they crashed into mine.

I slid out of my seat, going towards the vehicle. The door opened and the Dark female stepped out, "do you have any idea who I am?" she screeched, raising her hands as they sparked green.

I smiled, raising the gun, she froze, "yeah, actually. Thought you people were supposed to be smart. Never go anywhere without your handlers, assassin might just get you."

I pulled the trigger twice, one in the heart and the other between the eyes. Her body dropped and I dragged it to the side, leaving her in the ditch like the trash she was before hiding my own vehicle. Then I searched for her invitation and climbed into her car.

As I approached the gothic style manor, a sprawling place that was intimidating even to me, I found my unease turn to a hyper awareness once more. I went from sweaty palmed to twitchy in seconds.

I could feel them all, the supe's inside the building, there were so many, as many as the club. No, more. I could just tell.

I blew out a breath, staring at the expensive cars that lined the turn-about with a large lighted, fountain in the center. Climbing out, I lifted the invitation and went towards the door. I handed it off, keeping my gaze level and heart rate even.

The guard nodded me in without a second glance.

I entered the building, looking it over as I took in the doors, and windows, keeping track of all of the nearest exits and doors. There were many. Good.

The ball room was close to the foyer and the doors were open. Unfortunately there were too many people around to slip away without getting noticed.

As I stepped into the main room, my jaw clenched when that feeling washed over me again. I didn't like this, being surrounded by all of these Other's. It made a dark violence rise up in me, made me want to reach down, lift up my blade and start slicing. God, Patterson was right, these impulses that I normally didn't try to control were going to get me killed.

I took a deep breath, wishing I could drink. But no, I would need to do this sober, also unfortunate. The lighting was low, giving off a sensual feel, I could see Other's feeding on humans. Blood bags. A sneer of disgust rose up and now I just wanted to punch something. I was revolted, Other's, they acted like they were God's gift to the world just because they could live forever. We were animal, cattle to them, no more useful than a food source.

I looked away, searching out the St. Delphi's. I saw two of them, one was Nathaniel, the other was Kade. They were at the opposite end of the room speaking to some other Council members. Hadn't even glanced over when I'd walked in, that was something at least.

I looked around some more, not seeing the other two. I pretended to get a drink, water with a lime in it and then sipped on it, trying to seem inconspicuous. No one had spoken to me yet. So far, so good.

Spoke too soon.

"Who are you?" a blunt voice asked, I glanced to my left, a werewolf had come up to me. Shit he was Council, I recognized him almost instantly. I couldn't use the name on the invite.

"I'm a friend of the singer," I said evenly, tipping my glass to him, "who are you?"

He smirked, "like you don't know."

I didn't. Not really. I think his name was, "you're Fenner, part of the New Orleans pack, right? Their alpha?"

"I knew you knew me," wow, and I thought I was full of myself.

"That's funny, I'm kind of an Alpha myself," I said smiling a little.

He frowned, confused, "you're human."

I shrugged a little, "most days."

Most days I felt human. Some days I felt like a monster. I didn't feel the need to share that though.

"What's your name? I've never seen you before," he was going to keep pushing.

"Lisa," I lied, "I'm from Toronto."

"So, human most days, Lisa from Toronto, you here with anyone, a date perhaps?" he leaned forward, eyes glowing yellow. He leaned against the bar ledge, we were inches from one another now.

If he touched me, I wouldn't be able to stop myself from reacting. It had happened at the club and it would happen again. It was an instinct, one that I'd been made to feel whenever an Other put their hands on me. I was banking on the St. Delphi's eliciting the same violent urges. I was screwed if they didn't make me feel as murderous as every other non-human on the planet. I relied on my darkness during fights, it kept me going even when I got hurt.

He hadn't even touched me and I could feel that impulse building, finally, I asked almost heated, "where's the bathroom?" I gave him a flirty smile, hoping he would get the hint.

"There's one off the doors to the right," I raised my eyebrows a little.

He chuckled, "unless you want more privacy."

"Maybe you could show me to a more private one," I suggested, giving him what I hoped was a coy look. Really though, I had _no_ game. I had never flirted much and most of it was just using their hunger against them. We had a pheromone we could put on us to lure Other's out of a building or something, I rarely had to actually flirt with someone. I had never even kissed anyone so doing this was new territory for me, a place I was not comfortable being. I hated being touched unless it was to fight.

He held out his hand and squelching my instinct to break his wrist, I accepted it, and he led us out. But as neared the door, it hit me, a different kind of awareness that had me feeling nervous again. A St. Delphi was close by, I could feel it and I had to turn my head away as Adam and Kale entered the room right beside us. I swallowed hard as we reached them and I struggled to keep my heart beat even, but I don't think I did.

I could sense the alertness in them as well, how I knew that, I wasn't too sure. This was not good.

Shit, did they sense who I was exactly, somehow? They may have had good senses, but I had washed off and used perfume to cover up my scent. Did they see me clearly yet?

"Adam," Fenner said respectfully, nodding at him.

I could feel them staring at me intensely, and I kept my face angled away a little, slightly behind Fenner to keep from having my face seen. Adam and Kale, both of them were staring at me, and I don't know how I knew, but I could tell that the other two St. Delphi's on the other end of the room were also watching us now.

I tried to keep myself calm and steady, but I wasn't doing a very good job of it. They were looking at me and I knew if they didn't recognize me now, they would figure it out soon. Fenner led us out, and into the hall, where I took a deep shaky breath.

I hadn't even looked up, but I knew what I would've seen. That dark promise he'd had in his eyes like the last time. I felt as though someone had laid hands on me and I hated myself for feeling so weak. I couldn't stay here, they would be coming after me soon.

"How well do you know the St. Delphi coven?" I asked Fenner quietly as we went down several corridors.

He glanced at me, "a good while. Adam makes it his business to get to know all of the powerful clan leaders."

Yeah, so I'd read. He was forgetting about the most powerful one though. Us. A self-assured feeling started to build again.

I cut to the chase here, "I heard he has a dungeon, is that true?"

He glanced at me again, "are you into that kind of thing?"

I leaned forward, smiling shyly, "I am if you are."

He grinned, "oh, I knew I was going to like you," he took my hand and led me down another hallway, saying, "don't tell anyone, Adam will murder me if he finds out I showed you the basement."

"They do?" he knew where too.

This guy was an idiot, how he was a pack leader and a council member was beyond me. Thought council members were supposed to be the elite, the best, the most powerful. This guy couldn't even tell he was leading an enemy further into their camp.

We went down another two hallways, more quickly now, and much more quietly. Damn, this place was a maze, I could hardly keep track of how to get back, every corner we took looked practically the same.

He stopped at a floor to ceiling mural, pulling it aside and revealing a thick wooden door. He grabbed the handle, trying to turn it. "That's weird, he never locked it before."

I didn't need him anymore.

I reached out, snapping his neck and then dragged him away, leaving him in a broom closet. He'd wake up in a bit with a killer headache and a sore neck, but a snapped neck wouldn't kill him and I couldn't take the risk of even more attention on the St. Delphi's. A body found in their home during a party they hosted would raise quite a few red flags and it would be even harder to kill them.

I kicked the door hard twice before the frame splintered and the door opened. I went in, cursing the stupidity of not having a flash light. I went down the stone steps, going around in a circle. This was like something out of an old Dracula movie. It was almost amusing. _Almost_.

I went down the steps, as quietly and as quickly as I could, lifting the dress off and clip in my hair out. When I reached the basement, it was cold and damp and dark. I could hardly see anything.

I went down a small hallway, seeing barred cells. All of which were empty. No blood, no body parts, nothing.

Sighing and running a hand through my hair, I swore in frustration, "shit!"

"Find what you were looking for?"

Uh-oh, I tensed and rounded, eyes going wide as I faced Adam and Kale.

" _Shit_."


	5. Lies and Uncertainty

I glared, straightening. If I was about to die, I damn sure wasn't about to cower or show any fear. "No, actually. Where is he?" I asked furiously, lifting my gun and pointing it at them, taking a step forward.

Adam's gaze darkened and Kale smirked at the metal in my hands. I turned the safety off, cocking the gun, "human weapons can't hurt us," Kale said in triumph, as if he had already won the fight.

"Let's find out," I pulled the trigger, but they were too far and managed to get out of the way. I pulled the trigger a second time, "Where is he?!"

"Where is who?" Adam asked me, curiously, looking me over, straightening and pushing away from the wall. "Who are you?"

I levelled my gun at him, "you attacked me, you should know!"

He was cold when he responded, and I tensed as he pulled something out of his pocket. It was a picture of him getting into a car. "You and your friends are targeting us, I want to know why."

"Why do you think? Are you stupid? You think you can kill humans just because you're stronger than us?"

His eyebrows furrowed a little, "what are you talking about?"

"Kade! We know about the body count. And the team you and yours slaughtered in an apartment on the other side of town. You started a war with us without even realizing it. You should've let us kill Kade, now were going to destroy all of you and if you stop me, more will come."

Adam and Kale shared looks, Kale was defensive now. "Kade hasn't killed anybody! We haven't killed anyone in nearly a decade, not since the treaty. Whoever gave you your intel is lying!"

I shouted back as a surge of emotion hit its peak, "You're lying! That's all you freaks do is lie, acting like your human, living like your Gods gift. I've killed dozens of monsters just like you and I wont stop until every single one of you is dead!"

I pulled the trigger several times, walking towards them. Kale dove out of the way and Adam lunged for me. I couldn't get out of the way fast enough. He slammed into me and we hit the ground. Kale was on us a second later, ripping the gun from my hands and I struck out at Adam, throwing my palm into his nose. He growled as his nose began to bleed and I rolled us, straddling him and sliding the blade out of a sheath and bringing it down onto his heart. Kale ripped my arm backwards before it got within an inch of him. I fell back, staggering up and kicking out at him and pulling my arm from his grasp.

He stumbled back, and I whipped the blade, he ducked but not before it grazed his cheek. I raced up the steps. These guys were too fast, I couldn't take them both out, not two against one. Not as tired and hurt as I was.

When I reached the foyer, I was just about to blow through the entrance to the driveway when I heard a voice that caught me off guard.

I paused and then turned, eyes going wide. "Jared?" I cried out, stumbling into the ball room.

Jared, Cam, Nick and Asher, my entire team, they were all here. Fighting guards!

The room had more or less been cleared out, and I could see several guards and a few Other's crowding around a woman that was unconscious on the stage. But my team was struggling to take out the dozen guards raining down on them.

Arms wrapped around me and I cried out in surprise. The entire room heard me and a dozen heads turned to me and Nathaniel, who was trying to keep a grip on me as I struggled to get to my team. "Mara?" Jared gasped in shock.

I turned and finally struck out and then round house kicked him, stumbling for Jared and the others. I reached Asher first, who was about to have as sword driven into his chest. I threw my body into the Shifter on top of him, rolling us. Sliding the blade up into their gut and then ripping it out and bringing sword out, spinning it and slicing it through their throat.

I jumped back up breathlessly. Backing up to my team with Asher as we circled up.

Adam's order rocked the entire room. "Nobody touches the girl! Kill the rest!"

People shared looks, and backed away from me, but they went right at the others. I swore under my breath. If Adam thought he could torture me for information, he was wrong, we were trained to withstand pain. I was both sadistic and a masochist, torture would never work on someone as twisted as me.

My team looked at me, "What are you doing here?" Cam shouted and then took a punch to the face.

"What do you think I'm doing here!" I snapped at them, as Adam faced me a few feet away.

Adam gave me a scrutinizing look, "surrender and I wont kill all of your friends."

"Just most of them right," I asked with a scoff of disgust.

He shrugged a little, "you attacked my family and your friends tried to kill one of the Council. What do you expect of me?"

I twirled the blade a little, eyes narrowing some, "I expect I'm going to thoroughly enjoy making you kiss your immortality goodbye."

He frowned, lifting his arms, as if in surrender, "don't make me hurt you."

I glared at him, "didn't have a problem doing it yesterday."

"You're a hunter," he said giving me a pointed look, "what did you think we would do? That we'd knock on your door and ask you to politely stop killing our kind?"

"Get on with it Mara. Just kill him already," Jared grunted as he was thrown to the ground.

I looked around a moment, thinking, the conclusion? There were too many people here, we needed to get out of here, _now_. A bad idea formed. I liked this bad idea, and pissing off Adam would be a bonus.

I smirked a little, "I have a better idea," I turned and ran for the bar, hopping over the counter and kicking out at the bartender at the same time.

I pulled out the flask and doused the entire liquor counter. Adam was on me as I reached for my matches. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me away as I pulled and then I jumped up, kicking out at the bar, sending us staggering back out from behind it.

Adam twisted my arms hard and I gasped as pain shot through me and I kicked out at him. I turned as Asher shouted at me, "get out of there, now!"

Then I heard it, fire igniting. Adam swore under his breath, "did that asshole just set my house on fire?"

He sounded deeply offended.

I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing, throwing my fist into his face and scrambling up as the bar exploded in fire, then the window curtains and table clothes, then everything wooden. It happened fast, within a minute the entire room was on fire and people were scrambling to get out. I turned to race for my team as they ran for me at the same time.

I was nearly at them too, until Nathaniel came up behind me, grabbing me and dragging me backwards. I watched as the twins stepped in front of my team. Jared stared at them furiously, "what do you want with her? Let her go!" he shouted angrily, raising a gun and pointing it at the twins.

"She's ours," Kale retorted.

What the fuck did that mean?

I exploded in panic, cause that didn't sound good at all. My struggling intensified and I saw Adam coming towards us with a blade in his hand. He didn't do what I thought and expected him too. Instead of stabbing me or slitting my throat, he cut open his palm. What the hell was he-a terrible realization dawned on me. He wanted to give me his blood.

Jared looked at my terror filled expression, "don't touch her!" They were struggling to get past the twins to us. But my team was exhausted and hurt, they couldn't handle Kale and Kade.

I kicked out at Adam, who stepped out of the way, I kept yanking on my arms and Nate gripped them to my stomach. Adam reached up, pushing my head back into Nate's shoulder, I pulled and pulled, swearing at the top of my lungs. I was starting to get more and more dizzy now that the adrenaline had faded, the concussion was coming back full force. The fast spreading heat from the room on fire around us was not helping any.

"Stop," I gasped, seeing the blood covering his hand. "What are you doing, get away from me!"

Panic and fear had begun to consume me. "Shh, it'll only hurt for a minute," Nate's voice murmured into my ear.

As Adam's hand slammed down onto my mouth I reared, forcing my body back as hard as I could. I cried out, feeling fire explode inside of me and fill my head, my lungs, my heart, _everything_. It was all-consuming, as much as the fire surrounding us was.

Nate and I hit the ground, and I rolled onto my hands and knees, gagging and wheezing and hyper ventilating as my insides burned. I let out a sob, gripping my head as though it were on fire.

Arms wrapped around me firmly but gently, "I've got you," I barely recognized that voice. Jared, thank god.

I turned, seeing through bleary eyes that the fire had separated the other three St. Delphi's from their leader. Adam was on his knees, with a gun at his head, who was watching me looking pretty unconcerned with the current position he was in. Cam had his weapon pointed at the other three across the fire, Asher and Nick had their guns pressed to the back of Adam's head.

"He's all yours," Asher said to me, pissed.

Jared slid his sword into my hand, and I gripped it, heart pounding as Adam held my gaze. My jaw clenched and with Jared's help, we took a step towards Adam. I was really messed up in the head now, everything felt so wrong and off. He'd done that to me, the bite from yesterday, his blood, however small the amount had been, he was doing this to me.

I lifted the sword, wanting desperately to see his stupid head roll. My hand started to tremble around the hilt and my jaw clenched again, my breathing elevated. But I couldn't bring it down. It was like an invisible hand was covering mine.

In the end I brought the other end of the sword down on his temple, knocking him out. "What are you doing? Kill him! He nearly gave you his blood!" Cam snapped at me.

Jared was frowning at me, and I swallowed hard, backing up a step unsteadily. "Let's just go. I was told to take out the entire coven at once, quietly, we wont be able to do that now."

I tried to sound firm and steady, but I swayed a little. My head was going nuts, I felt like my brain was being liquefied.

Jared searched my gaze for a long tense moment. "You heard her, she has orders to follow like the rest of us. We need to get back."

Jared kept his arm around me and I couldn't help but glance back as the twins and Nate reached their unconscious leader. They were all watching us leave, and I stared back, wondering what the fuck had just happened and what the hell was wrong with me? I had never stopped from killing someone before. So why now? And what about what they had said in the basement, they said they hadn't killed anyone. Were they lying? They must've been.

So if they were, why was I was so full of doubt.

When we got out of the ball room, the guys were able to hide their faces because they all wore zipper hoodies. I wasn't, and cameras were flashing when we got outside. We hadn't expected that, "cover her!" Asher shouted, as suddenly we were swarmed and flashes burst in my face. I jerked in surprise, and Jared turned me as best as he could as the humans and police surrounded us and shouted questions and pulled and pushed at us. I tried to keep my face in Jared's chest, but I knew it didn't matter. Not only had the entire Council seen my face, but it was about to be splashed all over the five o'clock news.

We piled into the escalades and left. I slumped in the back seat, staring out the window. I kept envisioning Adam's eyes as I held a sword above his head. Why hadn't I killed him? He'd tried to kill me, at first anyway. He bit me _and_ gave me his blood! He may have been good looking, gorgeous like most Supernatural's, but I'd killed plenty of what most would consider 'hot' Other's. So it couldn't be that. It had to be what he said, that it wasn't him that took out Dylan and Gamma team.

And Jason wasn't there. He wasn't at the St. Delphi manor, never had been. So where hell was he?

And on top of that, Adam's blood was inside of me now. I didn't know what to do about that. A few drops, not enough to connect us, but, I had a bad feeling and nausea was growing in me. His blood, like his venom, should not have had an effect on me either, yet it had set me on fire inside.

I felt, lost, dazed, confused.

Carter threw the newspaper down onto the board room table. He was so angry his face was red. I sighed, seeing my stupid, stunned expression staring back at me in grey print. The others hadn't been seen, except by the Council. Only I was the one that got my face splattered over the media for setting fire to the St. Delphi manor. Adam St. Delphi had addressed the press during an interview, stating it was an accident and we were simply human guests. But I knew most of the government and humans wouldn't believe that.

We had looked and dressed exactly like what we were, assassins.

"Can you please explain to me what the fuck happened?" Carter shouted in my face.

I leaned back, answering evenly, "I told you what happened, it's in my report."

Fury lit up in his gaze, "twice you had gone up against them, and twice, you failed! You nearly compromised this entire facility and everyone in it! I hope you're pleased with yourself!"

"Not particularly, I look like shit in that picture," I said rolling my eyes.

Carter grabbed me, lifting me out of the chair and everyone stood up as he shoved me. I stumbled back, reaching out to grab a chair as I fell in surprise. "I told you, find Jason and eliminate them without it leading back to you. Not only did you not find him, dead or alive, you didn't kill any of them and your face is all over the news and social media! You couldn't have done a worse job!"

My team was standing, tense and ready to grab him or me in case he tried to hit me or vice versa. "You said to handle it quietly. So I didn't kill Adam, if I had, there would be a nationwide man hunt for all of us. You told me to be smart!"

"Does this look smart to you!" he shouted, lifting up and throwing the newspaper at me.

I rose, arms crossed with a scowl. Then his gaze went down some, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and then I watched as realization dawned on him. His eyes went wide, and he was on me in a second, pushing my shirt collar to the side.

He froze, pulling away as everyone's eyes went wide. "Which one bit you?" his voice was strained. The bite. He saw the bite. Damn it.

"It doesn't matter! It's not the first time one of us has been bitten," I said with a frown.

It was silent for a moment, and then Jared bit out a harsh curse, "cuff her!"

"What?" I blurted out incredulously, backing up a step in disbelief. "Why?"

Jared snapped at the others, "I said cuff her!"

I bolted for the door as the others rushed for me. I didn't make it very far, down the hall a little. Cam crashed into me, taking us both to the floor. Then the others were there, in less than a two minute long struggle, where I'd knocked out Asher and Camdon and broken a ton of furniture. Jared, Carter and Nick were able to get the cuffs on me and a doctor came out of nowhere, sliding a needle into my shoulder. I swore, voice slurring as the world faded out and I slipped into unconsciousness.

When I came to, I was in my bedroom at the School. My head was killing me and i was really sore. I sat up, feeling my aching gut and then looking around.

What the hell happened?

I slid out of the bed, unsteady and nearly collapsed, I had to reach out for the bed post just to keep upright. Then I remembered, my own fucking team cuffed and drugged me!

Rage exploded in me, I ran for the door, yanking on it to no avail. I'd been locked in. I turned, seething as I went for the window, just as I was about try and open it, my door opened.

I turned, seeing Jared standing there with a weary look on his face. "You son of a bitch!" I shouted, rushing him.

"Stop! Stop, just listen to me for a minute, would you?" he snapped after I punched him in the nose.

He held his face, wiping at the blood under it. "What the hell did you do to me?" I shouted angrily. I felt off again, I had just started to feel normal physically by the time we'd returned home and now I felt all sorts of wrong. Again.

"Just sit down and listen," he pushed me towards the bed.

I didn't sit, just crossed my arms and seethed.

He sighed, "we had to make sure you weren't compromised."

"What the fuck Jared? Since when did it become so difficult to speak English? Why wouldn't you just ask me?!"

He glared at me, "why didn't you tell us you were bitten by Adam St. Delphi?"

"Because it didn't-," I frowned, tilting my head in confusion, "how did you know it was Adam?"

He froze, as if he realized he'd been caught stealing from the cookie jar. Or lying. My eyes narrowed, "Jared, how did you know it was Adam?"

He was thinking, thinking up a lie. "Jared! What the fuck is going on?"

He grimaced, backing up a step and raising his arms up in surrender, "nothing, nothing! It wasn't hard to figure out, he's the one that told the guard not to touch you."

"You fucking lying sack of shit! How stupid do you think I am? Tell me the truth!"

He scowled at me, as if I were being difficult. I'd get real difficult in about five seconds if he didn't give me a real answer. "That is the truth. Carter went nuts when he found out you hid that you'd been bit. He grilled all of us. Was it _not_ Adam St. Delphi?"

I stared at him. He was lying. He never lied to me before. An awful feeling was coiling in me. But I listened to my gut, I let it go, for now. Though I really didn't want to, what I wanted to do was beat the shit out of Jared for answers.

"Well, did I pass your stupid test, what did you even do to me?"

"Trust me, you would know if you hadn't passed. I don't know, Carter and the doctors took you away. I was just told when they returned you to your room."

He was lying again. How did I know he was lying? Maybe because it was obvious considering he'd never tried to hide the truth from me before.

"How long was I out?"

He hesitated again, my eyes narrowed on him, "a week," he said eventually. "Eight days."

My breath caught and I backed up a step. I'd been out for eight days. "Wha-what the hell man!"

He grimaced, "I don't know what they did to you, I swear."

He was lying! He knew something!

I shook my head, "leave."

He hesitated, "we have an assignment tonight, if you're interested."

"Of course I'm interested, I need a punching bag now and unless you want to volunteer, damn straight I'm coming with!"

He rolled his eyes, "you are one violent chick, you know that?"

"I'll show you violent!"

He snorted, looking like he was trying not to laugh now, "you're so short, when you get all mad and puffed up you sound ridiculous. It's almost kind of cute when you try to be all bad ass, but it's also kind of scary because I know what you're capable of."

I scowled at him, "at least you don't underestimate me. Now get out, before I change my mind and kick your ass!"

He sighed, "look, I'm sorry, but it was protocol. It happens every time someone is bit," he was lying, I knew because not once had I heard of any of us losing eight fucking days. "I don't get why you wouldn't just tell us something like that, it made us think you were hiding something."

I looked away, and he stepped towards me, moving into my line of sight. He looked really worried now, " _are_ you hiding something?"

I glanced back up at him. "No." Yes. Maybe. I didn't know. I just knew I had questions and he was lying, not very well either. You'd think being an assassin he'd be good at that kind of thing.

He frowned even more, thinking as he spoke deliberately, "then why do I feel like were about to lose you?"

"Betrayal does that."

"We never betrayed you!" he said in shock. He truly seemed to believe that.

I turned around, walking away and into the bathroom. I couldn't look at him anymore, I would knock his ass out.

I showered quickly, before getting out. I had a full length mirror on the back of my door, so when I stepped out of the bathroom and dropped the towel to change, I saw it. My stomach. A long straight scar, in the shape of an upside down 'T' went the span of my stomach. From between my breasts, all the way down to my navel.

"What the fuck," I was breathing hard, I stood in front of the mirror, touching the scar. It was raised still, but faded, as though I'd had it for months and it had been deep. That hadn't been there a week ago. They had cut me open. But why? I was human, why would they do that? What would my insides possibly say that they didn't already know about humans? Did they find out Adam's blood had gotten into my system? I wouldn't think so, Jared would've mentioned it right away.

I looked up at my face, and then my eyebrows furrowed. There was something else. Leaning forward, I stared into my eyes, wondering why the image looked off. Then it hit me, my eyes. They weren't light blue anymore, they were almost dark. I looked at the drying hair, touching it. Something else had just occurred to me. My hair, it was back to its normal color, had the school changed it back somehow?

What was happening to me? What had they done to me?

I turned, using the wall to keep upright as I began to breathe harder. Something was very wrong here. I couldn't stay here, but could I leave without knowing the truth? I looked back at myself in the mirror, that dread I had before. It was back again.

And I had a feeling things were about get worse.


	6. Not All Hero's Wear Capes

I joined the others downstairs, dressed and ready to go. They looked like they were waiting on me, and they were all watching me warily as soon as they saw me come out of the elevator. I ignored them, looking at Jared coldly, I didn't trust any of them anymore, especially if the scar on my stomach was anything to go by. But I still needed to get the urge to do some damage out of my system. "Who's the target?"

Jared gave me a weary look for a moment before he nodded us all out the door. It wasn't him that spoke though. "He's from out of town, but we lured him out into town, he thinks he's here about a business venture. No one over the top, dossiers said he's been talking and making noise about humans being nothing more than food," Nick spoke up. "They also think he might be involved in an underground human trafficking ring."

"Let me guess, wolf?"

Adam gave me a slightly hesitant smile, "You guessed right, them werewolves like to think were worth nothing more than a meal. Let's show him what we really are."

Asher past me a file, and I skimmed it over as we went down into the parking garage. We climbed into our usual vehicle, "what did Carter say about you bringing me along?"

When no one spoke, I looked up to find them all looking at each other, "what?" I asked confused. What did I say now?

"Carter's gone."

"What do you mean, Carter's gone? Carter, as in our Lieutenant General? " I asked in alarm, they nodded, "dead or MIA?"

"MIA. Left for home three days ago and never returned. Bravo team was sent to check out his residence and speak to his family, but no one's heard from him. His vehicle was at home. He opened the door, it wasn't locked, but we checked for prints and tracks, pheromone signatures, cameras feeds, nothing."

"No leads at all?"

They shared looks, Jared sighed, turning to me and giving me his full attention now. Which meant what he was about to say was important. "A man named Hector has taken his place for the time being, and he's got it out for you for some reason, he's been all over your med and psych files. We have one lead on Carter, and that's you." What? I was unconscious for eight days! How could I have taken out Carter? "Hector, along with the other higher-up's think it was the St. Delphi's. Who haven't been seen since the press conference, which helped clear your name a little, but you're still wanted."

My eyes widened, "why would the St. Delphi's go after Carter? How would they know about him in the first place?"

They shared looks again, "what, guys, _seriously_ , what?"

"We think there looking for you," Camdon said wearily. "We weren't supposed to bring you along tonight. But we all agreed you have some steam to burn off."

"I'm _grounded_?" I asked incredulously. I had never been grounded before! Not once, everyone else has been, but never me. Oh god, I sounded whiny.

"Well, you're supposed to be," Nick said pointedly, smiling at me a little.

"You need to be careful right now, lay low, off the radar low," Jared said more slowly ten before, as if I were the slow one. "No fighting, no giving your opinion when you shouldn't be, going into restricted areas, don't be pulling your usual stunts."

"Says the guy who brought me on a mission after I'd been grounded!"

He chuckled, but I could see the guilt in his eyes. He hadn't planned to bring me, I could tell, he had because of how angry and hurt I'd been when I woke up. Good. I hoped that guilt kept him up at night. Every night. Forever. Serves him right before cuffing me and drugging me, lying to me. Bastard.

"I still don't understand how the St. Delphi's would know about Carter. Unless," they all looked at me. I looked up at Jared, "has anyone located Jason yet? And what is going to happen to the assignment?"

He shook his head, "no. Jason is still missing. I don't know, Hector didn't tell us, I'd assume another team will be put on the case. A lot of people are going missing."

"What are you talking about?"

"Two more high society supe's went missing and a Dark was murdered outside of the St. Delphi property the night of the party. On-," I cut him off, "oh yeah, the dark was me. Carter and Hector didn't mention that?"

"Uh no, probably wasn't really important. Hector hasn't been in much of a sharing mood, not with Alpha anyway. One of the missing Council members was a shape shifter, a pack leader in Europe, and an Aquatic. It's all over the news and internet. Human presidents are being pressured by the Council because the Supe's are demanding answers, they're pissed the Council let the humans be in charge of finding the supe's. The Council, technically, aren't supposed to get involved in police investigations like this, but they are lending resources to the humans in charge of finding the missing Council members."

"An Aquatic?" I asked in surprise, "why would anyone mess with the Aquatics?" They hardly ever spent any time on land and they don't feed on humans, they eat fish and underwater plant life.

Aquatics were basically 'mermaids', but if you call an Aquatic a 'mermaid' to their face they take it a racial slur. They spent all of their time in deep sea, and very few actually lived on land and when they did, it was for short periods because they weren't meant for land. All things considered, they were a very peaceful species. They were in charge of the treaty centuries ago and were basically the ones that brought the supernatural community to relative peace, they helped get the Council started in the first place.

"Yeah, the Aquatic was a rep from The Deep. He came to on behalf of King Ford. No one knows what he came to speak about because he never made it to out of the water. There were handlers waiting for him on shore. People are saying it was King Ford that was the one that was supposed to be coming up."

"Does King Ford know?"

"No one knows, no one even knows if the Aquatic was male or female. They tried to pass a message down, don't know how. The rep was supposed to be here for a few days, when whoever doesn't return home, another Aquatic will probably be sent to find out what happened to them. The humans used a submarine to try and find The Deep, but they didn't find it," Asher shook his head in slight bafflement, "Like the last ten times they tried to find there city."

'The Deep', was what people called the city in the sea where the Aquatics lived. Some people thought it was Atlantis. I didn't know what to think and I didn't really care. As long as they didn't kill people, I didn't give a crap what they did. But the humans, and even the Council, to our knowledge didn't know where there city was truly located. There was probably a hidden entrance or something equally impressive, I did know it was so far down that it was basically black at night, they probably used sonar when they were in their city at night.

Their eyes glowed too, at least, that was the rumour. They were very secretive about themselves and because there were so few, even less that claimed what they were out-right, we didn't know much. Didn't even know their numbers, life-span, how they had children, they really didn't share much. I don't think even the Council was very knowledgeable on their species.

It was illegal to study them thoroughly, the Council banned the humans from doing any kind of experimenting on any of their species', partially because anesthetic and other drugs didn't work on most clans. It was the compromise for tagging babies, humans and non-humans alike. We don't look inside of them, but we get to know when a child is born Other.

We didn't know how what was true about each clan, and some traits varied, especially in half-breeds. I had heard of some cases where an Other and a human had a 'miracle' 'abomination' child, it was very rare to conceive, maybe a dozen in the world rare. These children, they could have every trait of an Other and yet the tag would register them as human when they were born, because there genes hadn't finished changing.

It was all very fascinating to me, how a child could be born and be human the first six months and suddenly be an Other the rest of their life. Sometimes, even the traits could fade, I'd read medical anomalies of it, Halfling First Blood's that fed off of blood their entire life until one day they couldn't feed anymore for different reasons, they're teeth stopped elongating, the thirst never returned, they couldn't stomach it anymore.

Or a Halfling werewolf that had been able to shift with his family every full moon, but one night his body rejected it and he ended up paralyzed during the first half of the change. He remained human but after that, he suffered every full moon when his body tried to change.

A fey child who never had a single ability her entire life and was suddenly out of control and accidently making people sick when she was within a foot of them because she had an earth affinity and could release plant pheromones in a sort of poison gas form whenever she felt even the slightest negative emotion.

There was a Halfling shape shifter that was a shifter all through childhood, but when they finished puberty, the kid died one night because he started to change and his body couldn't handle it. It rejected the change, the shape shifter genes.

Now, people thought it should be illegal to have half-breed children. We hadn't known the risks until it had been too late. There was another story of a girl, she had been born Other, half Indo, but when she turned thirty, (which people never survived the change into Indo if they were over the age of thirty), died the exact moment she turned thirty.

It was crazy, there was so much we didn't know, and the Council didn't want us pushing it. They shut us down. All we were permitted to do was test them at birth for Other. Nothing else. We weren't allowed to operate on them either, not even small things like a severed appendage. If an Other was wounded badly, like, cut nearly in half or something that could cripple, kill or couldn't self-heal, it was up to the Council what to do, not even the Other. Because that could have repercussions. I didn't know what kind they meant, I wasn't much for politics.

I did find the science of it all fascinating though, unfortunately all we knew was what the Council had shared with the public, and it was all the obvious stuff, or things that could've been discovered by looking or seeing a certain action done. We didn't know a whole lot about their inside biology.

Someone snapped their fingers in my face, and I scowled at Nick, they were all staring at me worriedly. I must've zoned out.

"And what of the shape shifter?" I asked after a moment.

Jared gave me a weird look, but answered me, "They think she's dead, her home was bombed. They found several bodies that weren't as close to the blast range, the upstairs bedroom where she had been sleeping. But obviously hers was never discovered. They're still sorting through the wreckage, but the Anti-Other movement is claiming responsibility."

A bombing? The hate group?

An ugly feeling took root in my gut.

That sounded like what was supposed to happen after I rescued Jason. I was to set up the bomb and get out. They would've been blown to bits, than a radical group against the Council was supposed to take the blame.

I looked at each of my team, wondering why I suddenly felt like I needed to get out this vehicle and far away from them. "What's wrong?" Nick asked abruptly, turning to look at me with a hard gaze.

My eyebrows were furrowed, I was pale and I could feel a tremble in my hands. I clenched my fists, taking a breath as they all shared looks once again. "I'll be fine. Just slept for a week, guess I'm a little off," I said evenly.

"Yeah, you probably haven't slept that much your entire life all together," Cam said teasingly.

"Yeah, what was the longest, six and a half hours, all doped up on pain meds when you broke your arm?" Asher shot at me.

I rolled my eyes good naturedly, pretending as though I wasn't feeling like I was about to abandon my team. I needed to trust my gut, and it was saying to run. And I would. As soon as I had all of my files from all of the doctors I had. I couldn't go anywhere until I knew what had been done to me. You don't cut someone open to just have a look around inside of them.

We reached the city, and each of us climbed out, going to the trunk and pulling our weapons out. "Keep your hood up, we don't want to all get grounded if you're spotted," Jared said to me, handing me a black bandana.

Great, now I had to be incognito. Everything was so simple before Kade St. Delphi dropped onto the School radar. Bright side, at least I was out of there and about to kick some supe ass.

Rather begrudgingly, I pulled the bandana up, tying it under my braided hair before pulling up my hood. "Damn do I ever love having a chick on the team," Cam said winking at me and nudging Nick, who was putting bullets into a gun.

Of all of the teams, there were only six girls, all of which were twenty and didn't really like me. Aside from Delilah, whom was the closest thing I had to a best friend.

There had been six girls, now there were only five of us, a girl had been on Gamma team. From the images and information done during the autopsy and crime scene, she was in more pieces then the rest of Gamma team. Her death, I can just imagine how awful it must've been, where most of them had just been ripped apart into about five or six pieces. But her body was not parts, they were bits, as in many and they were damaged badly, lacerations, caved in skull. It had been hard to look at, the images had seared into my mind until I had felt physically ill. It was so hard to imagine the St. Delphi's had done that, all things considered, they hadn't hurt me very much even when they had the chance.

God, I couldn't think about any of that Gamma or my previous targets, so I pushed the images and thoughts away.

I smirked under the bandana, "say what you want Cam, you touch me and I'll rip your balls off in your sleep."

He smirked, "oh baby, as long as you fondle them first."

I snickered, "dude, gross," shaking my head, a little weirded out with what we were talking about.

"Alright, quit fucking around. Our target should either me at his hotel or at a club, he went there last night. He may be their again. Planted a bug on his car, tracked it here. The club is down the street. Split up, find the target and call in, await further instructions," Jared said, then turned to me, "you're with me."

I sighed, "really Jared? You going to put a leash on me next?"

He shot me a dark look, "apparently I need to."

He nodded at everyone else, ignoring my glare, "you guys check out the club, we'll scale the building across the hotel, the roof is two stories up over the third floor that he's staying on, we should be able to get a visual if he's there."

They all nodded and I reached down for a walkie, Jared grabbed my arm. "You don't need one. I have one."

I frowned, "I always get one."

He shrugged, "Asher needs the last one."

Asher grabbed it, frowning at Jared.

"Alright," I said slowly, confused, that was weird, "let's go I guess."

We split up, going down an alley together, when we reached the fire exit ladder, Jared and I started to climb, the others continued walking. "Ugh, it occurs to me that we spend way too much in smelly alleys," I said when a foul smell hit me.

"Second you there," he said, breathing through his mouth. I was just trying to hold my breath, tasting hot garbage for the rest of the night held no appeal whatsoever. We climbed over the edge onto the roof and kept low as we got to the end of it. I saw the guys reach the club down the street across from us then continue on into the alley next to it, probably an employee entrance or something.

Jared brought out some binoculars, looking into them. "There, third window from the left," he murmured. I looked to where he directed, I saw him right away, speaking into a phone. "That's him?"

He nodded, "you should call the others back, I can't tell if there are any Other's with him."

He lifted up the walkie, and a loud whirring static exploded from it. He glanced at me and sighed as if I had been broken it or something, I scowled, I hadn't even touched the fuckin thing. Jared looked back through the binoculars as he spoke, "Walkies out. It's probably just him. One wolf, we can handle him. Come on."

When we reached the exit ladder, I stepped off of the roof, dropping down five stories into a crouch and he swore at me from the ladder. "How the hell did you just do that?" he called down to me with a hiss.

I looked up at him grinning cockily, "cause I'm awesome."

I started across the street, ignoring at him as he tried to call me back.

I entered the lobby of the hotel, ignoring the strange looks other travellers gave me as I went towards the elevator. I went up to the third floor, keeping alert. I went to the third last door and knocked. He answered right away, "you are not who I ordered."

"Nasty, really?" I asked with a grimace. I shook my head, and before he could say anything to gross me out further, I attacked. Throwing my body into his, the door slammed behind us as we crashed to the floor.

I threw my fist into his face twice before he managed to throw me off and then hit me once, causing my nose to burst with blood and for a moment my eyes watered. I kicked him off with a pained groan, "I hate when people hit me in the nose!"

When my eyes stopped blinking back tears. I rolled and flipped back up and lifting my blade out. "What are you?" he asked, inhaling deeply, eyes changing to that of a wolf's.

I twirled the blade, loving the way it felt, I teased him, "why don't you come find out?"

He rushed me, and I side stepped, bringing the knife up and across his stomach, spinning and when I came back around I slammed the hilt of the blade down into his back, the center of his spine. He stumbled into a chair, turning back to me with an angry growl. He inhaled again, looking really confused and frustrated. "What are you?" he shouted.

I used the back of my hand to wipe the blood beneath my nose. "I'm human," I said, not understanding why he kept asking.

He shook his head, and he actually backed up a step as if he was afraid. "You're not human. You can't be! You smell nothing like any human I've ever met, you don't even smell like an Other. What are you? Where did you come from?"

Anger built in me, "I'm human!"

He backed up another step, "no, you're not! Stay away from me!"

I grinned now, "scared of a little girl?"

He shook his head furiously, "no, I'm scared of the wrongness inside of you."

I didn't like that. My anger morphed into rage and I threw myself at him. I wanted him dead more then I needed to blow off steam now.

We turned over a table and I brought the blade down, slitting his throat and then jammed it into his heart. He seized, and I watched the silver leak into his blood stream and then into his heart. The Kill hit me hard, making me fall backwards, breathing deep as a shiver and goose bumps rose all over me.

Jared kicked open the door, scanning the room before relaxing when he saw me. "That was quick," he said, looking down at the body.

I got back up, almost unsteadily. The rage, The Kill, it was burning away now, and I was a little off. I'd be fine in a second. After he'd offended me, saying I wasn't human or Other, the physical and pleasure of The Kill had hit me hard. "Yeah."

He glanced at me, "did he say anything to you? I thought I heard yelling."

My gut said to lie. Trusting my gut was all I had going for me right now so that was exactly what I did, I lied, again.

"The usual, who are you, I'll kill you, same old," he nodded, and then pulled out the knife, passing it back. He examined him a moment, "just leave him. It'll be too much work carrying him out and burning the corpse, it's not even ten yet, there's too much traffic in this area. He's well hated, they'll think someone did it because he's a human trafficking freak."

I nodded. But, I still had some energy to burn. I bit my lip a little, and then just blurted it out. "Alright, let's go to the club."

His gaze shot to me surprised. "You want to go to a club, _you_?"

God, was I that much of a loser to everyone?

I shrugged, "it's a human bar and I had a rough couple weeks. I could use a dozen drinks."

He stared at me, gaze hardening before he practically snapped at me. "You know a club is for dancing and basically to get laid, right? You're not allowed to have any kind of sexual relation until your nineteen. And on top of that, I wouldn't let you!"

I raised my eyebrows, leaning back against the wall, arms crossed. "I don't recall saying anything about getting laid. I kind of want to dance though. But, on my own," I shuddered at the thought of some random touching me, grinding and sweating all over me. Not appealing. "I would like to do something normal for once."

He relaxed when he figured out I meant what I said, and he chuckled, "okay. Let's go see the guys, they'll be thrilled to stay for a bit. You're right though, you have had a rough time lately, having some fun would do you good. I just hope no one recognizes you."

"It's a club, people will be drunk and it'll be crowded and dark. I wouldn't worry. And you know, I had fun just now, until it ended."

He snorted, draping an arm over my shoulder as he led us out.

"Only you would think hunting is fun."

"Why else would I do it?"

"I don't know, saving the world?" he asked sarcastically.

I gave him a confused look, then relented, shrugging, "that too I suppose. Never thought of myself as the hero-type."

He gave me a small smile, "well, not all hero's wear capes."

I tilted my head, trying to picture us all in a hero get up. "I know what we're going to be for Halloween! The Avengers!"

"Thank god we don't actually celebrate Halloween," he said in mock horror.

"We do now! I'll start looking for your Captain America costume ASAP!"

"Who would you be, The Hulk?" he asked grinning now. Then he grinned even wider, "no. You would definitely be Black Widow. Shit, that would be so hot! The guys would agree too!"

"I don't think anyone can top Scarlett Johansson, she's the hottest red head I've ever seen. Real or not."

He gave me a small smile, quietly looking at me, now serious as he spoke, "no, she's not."

Whoa, that changed fast.

I looked away after a moment, feeling that burn of betrayal once more. What pissed me off so much was that he didn't even seem to think he was betraying me. He thought he hadn't done anything wrong, and my instincts were telling me there was much more going on then I realized, and he knew about it. I couldn't help but wonder how much the rest of our team knew.

Thankfully, I didn't have to respond to that as we'd had reached the club.

The guys weren't the least bit concerned about the wolf. Nick had been flirting with some girl at the bar, and the guys were both in a booth with shots and glasses in front of them.

When he told them he was dead, they nodded. "Cool, Hector Stick-Up-His-Ass isn't expecting us for another hour, nice job, now we can hang out for a bit," Cam said, passing a glass of what smelt like gin into my hand. I threw it back, drinking it all in one breath.

They stared in surprise, "Whoa!"

"She chugged it like water!" Asher said in disbelief, "how often do you drink?"

I rolled my eyes, "not enough."

"What's up with you tonight?" Jared asked looking at me weirdly.

I threw him a look, "you really have to ask? Sue me for needing to unwind a little after my so-called friends cuffed me, drugged me and a whole fucking week went poof!"

Guilt covered them all, I dismissed it for the moment and flagged the bartender down for another. I pulled my sweater off, I had pulled on a tank top to cover the scar before I left. I tossed the sweater at Jared's head with a smirk, "Hold that!"

I chugged the next glass and made my way to the middle of the dance floor. I tugged loose the braid, letting the alcohol pull me down and the heat filled me, making me relax and get swept up in the too-loud music. I let the energy surrounding me pull me in and I faded away into it, letting the music carry me.

I didn't get to dance long, I could feel the guys watching me the entire time, but I ignored them. No one knew who I was, thankfully. I had brushed people off when they tried to dance with me, I was here for myself, not to make new friends.

After about half an hour, Asher came to get me.

"Jared said we need to leave, now!"

"Why?" I called out following behind him. I had been enjoying myself, had even been thinking about getting Jared to let us stay a while longer.

Asher just shook his head. "He's getting the car. Let's go. They probably found the dead wolf or maybe the School realized you're gone. I just know he got a call and we need to leave ASAP."

"Where's Nick and Cam?" I hadn't seen them leave with Jared.

"Cam went with Jared. Nick was with some chick in the back, Jared already radioed him."

I let him lead us out and Nick was coming up behind us as we got to the doors. I did notice however that Nick gave me a weird feeling. I frowned to myself, glancing back at him. He looked fine to me, so why did I feel edgy around him so suddenly? I kept, I don't know, seeing red when I looked at him. Like, blood red, as though it were all over him. But it wasn't.

"Hey, let's go, School called, they think the St. Delphi's are in the city," Jared called from the drivers seat. Nick nodded me into the car and I started to climb in silently, edgy and confused. It must be the alcohol. Right?

I hoped so.

It hit me. "What are you talking about, how do you know they're in the city?" I asked in growing panic, stopping as I reached the open door.

They all looked at me. "Just get your ass in this car! Does it matter how they found out?" Cam snapped, reaching for me. I backed up, out of his reach, breathing a little heavy.

"I-we should be leaving the city!" I said wide eyed.

"No, the safest place for you is at home. You can't be traced back there. Someone probably recognized you. Now if you don't get your ass into this car, I will drag you in," Jared shouted, glaring at me.

I grimaced. That bad feeling was back again.

I climbed in.

All of us were completely oblivious to the four men on a rooftop, watching us as we drove away.

When we got back, I was put in lockdown. Which was really just a fancy word for being grounded, can't leave my own room kind of grounded.

"Way to blow it out of proportion! I wasn't even seen! What's the big deal?" I asked in irritation. "I would've been arrested if I had been seen! There were no news vans, screaming humans or police sirens, everything was fine. Great even!"

Hector, a Mexican General from down south, was not impressing me. He looked at me like I was a bug and spoke condescendingly, I instantly hated the guy. He was worse than Carter, who I was starting to miss the longer I was around this jackass. "You were not cleared for assignment, nor were you given permission to be out in the field."

My gaze darkened, and I took a threatening step forward. "Did you just try to tell me I need permission to leave here?"

He scoffed, "you're the property of the United States of America. You will obey!"

I snapped, I felt red fill my head, my vision and I was on him instantly, throwing my fists into his face. The room exploded and everyone pulled me off, it took the entire team to pull me off of him I was so pissed. "I am not a piece of property and I am not a dog!" I shouted angrily, "tell me again what to do! I choose to be here, but if you're the asshole giving orders from now on, I'm done! Gone!"

Everyone stepped away from me, all but Jared, who glared at me and stepped forward. "Calm down, before you get into more trouble!"

"What the fuck?" I blurted out, "did you hear what that asshole just said to me? He said I'm property, he's treating me like a fucking dog!"

"I heard! Now back down!" he shouted back, jerking forward so that we were chest to chest. "Back off, before you say something and get into even more trouble. Go to your room!"

"What?! Go to my room?" I made an angry sound, "you're not my father, I'm not a piece of property or a pet, asset or not and I swear to god if he doesn't back off I will be gone faster than you can say the word AWOL!"

Jared was getting more and more mad, "go," his voice was low and threatening.

I gave him a disgusted look and backed off.

I got to my room, but as soon as I stepped through, it slammed shut like magic, and then I couldn't get it open. "Uh-oh," I turned and ran at the window, but it wouldn't budge. I tried to break the window, but it was too thick and the glass was reinforced.

I was locked in. Like a dog. Like I was property.

The second that door opened, I was out of here. I didn't care if they labelled me a terrorist. I wasn't going to be treated this way, not after everything that just happened. Not after finding out I was being lied to. Not after being drugged by my own team and locked into my room. Not after they fucking cut me open.

I was done. I didn't care about finding out what was really happening here. I would get out, one way or another I could find the truth. It would've been easier here, but I could do it on the outside somehow, someway as well.

I was the best, and I would show them just how good I really was. I would make them regret treating me this way. I would make them regret ever training me.

Eventually, I fell asleep, far sooner then I should've. I use the term sleep loosely. The 'sleep' was probably caused by something that had to do with the mist that seeped into the room after I went psycho trying to destroy everything. As if wafted up into my nose and mouth, I swayed as the world darkened.

I had been drugged, again. I collapsed onto the bed sideways.

 _I couldn't move. I was struggling and the world was coming in and out of focus in blurs and mixed up light and darkness. I groaned, something was wrong, wrong with me. I couldn't move, why couldn't I move? What was happening, something was happening to me!_

" _She's waking up!" a frantic voice shouted loudly._

" _Sedate her!"_

 _I didn't like what I was feeling, I was cold, numb, stuck._

 _I tried to wake up, and tried to make the world focus a little more._

 _A group of people surrounded me. They looked like surgeons and doctors, they all stood above me, all of them in surgical clothing. The last thing I saw was a strange sealed bag full of a black oily liquid in a nurses hands._

 _Then everything went dark again. And somewhere far away an alarm went off._

It was loud and jarring. I bolted up, rolling off of the bed and scrambling up as the not-so-familiar intruder alarm sounded. The compound was being attacked. I swore, running for the door and tripping over a chair I'd broken.

It was locked still. "Somebody let me out!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I heard a crash and then a scream and I went to the window. People were running everywhere, some with weapons, others were civilians that worked here.

I could see three bodies on the ground, all of which were one of ours. Not my team, but two were from Echo and the other was from Beta. The alarms turned off suddenly, cutting out, as if someone had turned the system off, and yet, the place was still in chaos and the voice that was supposed to be telling everyone we were safe was not to be heard.

I could feel it, everywhere, panic, terror. It was everywhere. I felt like I could breathe it in, taste it, it made me want to lash out, react. And I was alone in this room, which meant whatever it was had people more scared than usual. Whatever the threat was from, was huge.

I groaned, trying to push it away as my own instincts picked up on it all. What was with that? What the hell was happening to me? I shouldn't be feeling what everyone on the compound felt, not when I was trapped in a room alone.

I heard a shout from down the hall, and then another crash and a familiar voice. It was Zane, from Bravo, he had yelled, "please no!"

I backed up into the window, whoever was out there, was getting closer. I could feel that too. The crashing sounds, the screams, they were closing in on this corridor.

I turned back to the window, throwing my fist into it until my knuckles were bloody and busted. Then I grabbed up the chair and threw it at the window. The chair broke and I picked up the metal leg. It finally started to crack when I wailed on it, denting the leg as the window started to fall apart bit by bit. I hit it again and again about five times before I heard it.

Fear shot through me and I froze for just a millisecond. A click, a very resounding, quiet, _click._ The door had just unlocked. I swallowed hard, throwing the metal into the window and finally, it broke. I was halfway out the window when I was ripped backwards hard. I struggled, kicking out at the wall and we hit the ground, tangled up.

Horror filled me as I realized who had attacked the compound.

It was the entire St. Delphi coven. All four of them. In my room.

I struggled even more, throwing my elbow back into Nathaniel's face. I scrambled up, racing for the door when Adam stepped into the doorway. I reared hard, sliding back onto my ass as he stepped inside.

He smirked down at me, "you genuinely seem surprised."

I was. Very. "Y-You attacked the compound! How did you know where we were?"

He shook his head, "we don't care about these people, we only ever cared about you."

"What?" more panic. "That doesn't answer my question!"

"Hear us out," Kale said from behind me.

I didn't want to hear anyone out. I felt like I was either about to scream, burst into tears or pass out. None of those sounded like good ideas. What I wanted to fell was angry, I wanted to feel the urge to fight and it wasn't there!

"What do you want?" I blurted out unsteadily, staring up at him.

"Come with us and we'll tell you," Adam said simply.

I gazed up at him in terror, this emotion, definitely terror. Speechless terror.

Nathaniel knelt down next to me, looking me over. I could already see the bruise forming where I'd thrown my elbow into his cheek. "We just want to talk," Kale said, crossing his arms.

I swallowed hard, "about what? You couldn't pick up a phone, call a meeting? You're saying you basically raided the School for chit chat!"

Stall. Stall until Alpha showed up. They had to know who was here by now. Reinforcements would be here any minute. I hoped. God how I hoped. I wasn't one for prayer, but I was willing to try it if I was forced to fight these guys on my own. Because I knew I wouldn't win, not against the entire coven.

Nathaniel held out his hand for me, "you can't possibly want to stay here. They locked you in this room. It's basically a cell. You're a prisoner here."

That was true, but going with them was not a solution. It would turn me into the School's next target. My own team would hunt me down and put a bullet in my skull if I left with them. "Tell me what you want to talk about first," I said, accepting Nathaniel's hand.

He helped me up and I quickly pulled my hand from his, backing up and feeling totally edgy as they all watched me. They had this way of making me feel as though they were seeing into my soul and I hated it. "You know something is not right here. You can feel it," Adam said slowly. "We told you we didn't kill anyone. Kade hasn't killed anyone in an entire decade."

"You came here to tell me that?! I was given evidence of his victims!" I crossed the room to my desk, pulling out the copied files I had and tossed them down in front of them.

Kade stepped forward and I instantly backed away as he looked over the documents. He shook his head, "This proves nothing, these could be staged. It's just a crime scene, a brutal one, but it could've been done by anyone," he said, showing the pictures to Adam. "Do these people look familiar to you?"

Adam looked over the picture, concerned and when he looked up, he was staring at me hard. "What's your last name?"

" _What?"_ that came out of left field.

He took a step towards me, making me back up one of my own, "what is your last name?"

"I-I don't have one. I've been here since I was a baby."

His eyes widened dramatically, "are you serious? This entire time you've been _here_?"

I nodded once, tilting my head a little, "Yeah."

They all shared stunned looks. "Wait, wait, I thought all of the kids brought here were actual children, not infants?" Kale asked uneasily.

"Not me, I was brought in about a year later than them, as an infant."

"That would make her what, seventeen?" Kade asked grimacing.

I corrected, "sixteen, actually." I didn't know why I was telling them any of this, because technically it was treason. Also, I could see that they did not like what I was saying. I looked at the paper in Adam's hand. "You know who those people are, don't you?"

His jaw clenched and I could see his eyes darkening, "you need to come with us. _Now."_

"No! You're insane, I'm not going anywhere with you!"

He shook his head, "I'm not giving you a choice. You have no idea what's really going on. You aren't safe here."

Boy did I know it.

He turned and nodded at the twins, who started rummaging through all of my stuff, my dressers and closet. They shoved my clothes and books into several bags. "Let's go," Adam said as he turned back to me.

I backed up a step, levelling him with a more even stare than I felt, compared to the storm within me. "No."

His eyes darkened, "don't make me do this," he said harshly.

I smirked at him, "will it not be as good for you, as it will be for me?"

Nathaniel came to his side and Adam glanced at him and nodded. "Bite her."

Alarm shot through me and Nathaniel stepped forward, eyes going black and teeth elongating. "Last chance," Nathaniel warned me, voice thickening with hunger.

I glared at him, "try it, asshole! I don't have a fucking head injury this time!"

Nathaniel rushed me. I side stepped, throwing my fist out, he wrapped an arm around my waist, shoving me into the wall. I twisted out of his grasp and then stumbled for the door, where the twins now stood guard. They had me trapped in here, and the space was not ideal for a fight, especially since I'd trashed it.

I turned to go for the window only to find Adam there. I let out an annoyed sound and Nathaniel's arms came around me and he threw me onto the bed, climbing on top of me, forcing my arms up above my head. I ripped my right arm loose, sliding it under the pillow and bringing a blade up.

He grabbed onto my wrist and I rolled us off of the bed, straddling him as I brought the blade back down to his throat.

A hand grabbed my wrist, I turned and struck out at Adam. He tossed the blade away, and I stood back up and kicked out at him. He gripped my ankle, twisting me hard. I landed unevenly, Nathaniel's arms wrapped around me before I fell. I threw my head back into his as hard as I could. Forcing his arms away and then I turned and slammed my palms into his chest, grabbed his arm and spun him hard. He landed on his back with a grunt.

"God she's amazing," I heard Kade mutter, and I threw them a glare, seeing Kale nodded his agreement.

I turned back to Adam, breathing hard with exertion, he raised his eyebrows. "You know were too fast for you. We can keep doing this until your too exhausted to fight, or until were so fed up with playing it safe we stop trying _not_ to hurt you."

I scowled, "only pussies hold back."

He grinned now, "you hear that Nate? She's thinks you're a pussy."

"I heard," I turned, tensing as I saw how very dark 'Nate's' eyes were. He was standing, tense and he kind of reminded me of a wild animal. He was seething and ready to spring now, uh-oh, "You may the best at what you do, but you've never fought monsters like us."

I smirked, "you think you're something special, don't you?"

He smirked back, only it was dark and twisted. "No, not me. _You_."

He lunged, and struck out. I barely dodged in time, shocked at how fast he was. Shit, he nearly clocked me and I just knew that would've knocked me right out. I dropped low when he swung at me again, then I felt a painful grip around my wrist as Adam tugged me to the side a little. It distracted me, and Nate grabbed onto the wrist Adam had, twisting it and forcing me to turn as he slammed me into the wall.

He didn't hesitate. I felt his teeth sink into my neck and I cried out as pain ripped through me. Almost instantly I felt the impact of the venom. My vision blurred and my legs gave out, body relaxing whether I wanted it to or not. Nate wrapped an arm around my waist, holding me to him before I fell.

It was a long pained moment before he finally stopped. My head was a haze, I could barely see and I couldn't even keep my head up let alone stand on my own anymore.

"Well?" the twins said at the same time as his mouth left my neck.

"Exactly as Adam said, ours, but. Tainted. There's something wrong with her."

"Wha-what?" I couldn't catch my breath, I felt like I'd run ten miles. Up hill.

They ignored me as if I hadn't even spoken, sharing weary looks.

His chest was heaving, my blood covered his mouth and I slurred a curse as he lifted me up into his arms, holding me to him. I was struggling to stay conscious. But I couldn't. I was out within seconds of being carried into the hallway. The last thing I saw was Zane waking up and seeing us, then getting knocked out all over again.


	7. From Grounded to Abducted

When I woke up, I didn't recognize the room I was in.

Confusion filled me.

Where was I? What the hell happened now?

I sat up some, leaning back on my elbows as I stared around at my surroundings. This was definitely not the School. Shifting and then climbing out of the bed, I happened to glance down and realized I wasn't even wearing clothes, just a bra and my underwear. Someone had undressed me!

Before the panic could take over, I took a deep not-very-calming breath. Focus. There are more important things to worry about other than my partial nudity, right now.

I went to the window, not really recognizing any of my surroundings either. What concerned me the most, was the ocean that was outside approximately a yard away from the window I stood at.

"What the fu-," my voice faded, as the memories hit me like a bag of bricks. Shit. The St. Delphi coven.

Nate had bitten me. I felt my neck tenderly, that explained why my shoulder and neck felt so stiff. A scowl over took me as I looked back at the room, the very large room.

Oh my god, I had been kidnapped! You know, all things considered, despite my profession, I never thought this would happen to me.

Where the hell was I?

The School wasn't anywhere near the ocean. I must've been out for a while, at least a good few hours, and it was late afternoon now. Which meant I'd been out longer than just a couple of hours. The sun was going down, the view was breath taking, but I wasn't here for the view. In fact, I distinctly recall telling them that I didn't want to go with them. Irritation filled me.

I vaguely started to recall the strange sentence Nate had spoken after he'd fed off of me. That my blood was 'tainted'. What did that even mean?

I ran a hand through my hair and then turned, opening the window when a voice spoke behind me. "Leaving without a goodbye?"

I turned to see Adam standing there, leaning in the door way, I blurted out, "stop doing that!"

He was grinning from ear to ear, "you know the door was unlocked right? We wouldn't cage you in here."

I don't know why I said the next words I did, but they came out without thinking, "yeah, but you would cage me wouldn't you?"

He didn't answer or really responded at all to that one.

After a moment of a blank expression on his face, he straightened, entering the room, "come sit down."

He went and sat at the couch. This bedroom had its own living room, and four doors, I had no idea to what, I imagined one was a bathroom though. "I wont bite, come sit," Adam said, smirking, "well, I do bite, but I don't plan on it just yet."

"Yet?" I asked in alarm. I didn't want to be bit. I didn't even like being touched. Did these guys not understand boundaries? And why was I not more concerned about being kidnapped?

I didn't sit next to him, I sat across from him, keeping a good distance between us. It didn't really feel like it was enough.

"Where are my clothes?" I asked him, scowling when his gaze dropped to my chest.

He grinned a little more, "they are being cleaned and looked over."

"What? Why?" I asked in confusion. "Tracking devices? Oh, well, yeah, I guess kidnappers would look for those."

He gave me a serious look, leaning forward, elbows on his knees. "That place is a lie. All they fed you were lies, they've poisoned you. You are fighting a war that does not exist. Unfortunately, after your actions against The Council, you may have started the one thing we've been trying to stop."

"We would never touch The Council, they're the only governing body for the supernatural community."

He shook his head, "four council members are missing. Our intel says it's you guys, _you_ specifically."

"No, we would never touch a council member! It would draw too much attention to us."

He raised his eyebrows, "you attacked me."

"You deserved it! You slaughtered an entire team of ours! Friends, they were just kids! And you're not on Council yet!"

He shook his head, "I swear to you, it wasn't us. We did come across one of your's, he was snooping around our business and asking questions but we didn't hurt him, he left alive. It's how we recognized that panic button we removed on you."

I looked down, eyebrows furrowing, I hadn't even noticed. It was gone. A scab sat in it's place where the skin had been torn off. "You could be lying to me," I whispered as the uncertainty filled me.

"I would never lie to you," he said simply.

Something else came to my attention, I looked up at him, speaking quietly, "you said they were poisoning me. What does that mean?"

I could see the uncertainty in him now, before he could speak, another voice did. We looked over as the other three St. Delphi's entered. "Here," Kale threw a shirt at me. It wasn't one of mine.

"Where is my stuff, you know, I don't recall saying anything about moving out!" I didn't have a choice but to pull on the stupid clothing. It might as well have been a dress, a short skimpy one that went a little higher then mid-thigh, though I guess it was better than it actually fitting.

It was one of their shirts, I could smell their scent, however clean, which it was, clean. I frowned, how could I smell their scent on a piece of clothing that had been washed? I sighed to myself, mumbling a little, "I have to go back." I could feel it in my gut.

"No. You are not ever going back there!" Nate said, looking at me as though I was insane.

"That has been my home for the last sixteen years!" I retorted defensively.

"That was not your home, you don't get poisoned and held prisoner in your own home," Kale said rolling his eyes at me.

"I was grounded! Regardless, those people are my family," I was getting angry.

"You're lying to yourself, your lying through your teeth right now," Adam said with a sigh.

"Shit, do they ever have her brain washed bad," Kale said unamused.

I chewed on my lip, I don't know why I was arguing with them. This didn't make any sense. I was so confused. I turned back to Adam, "why would Kade be one of our targets if he's so innocent? Who killed our team? Why would I be poisoned? You cant just make all of these accusations and not have anything to support it!"

Adam stood up, pulling out a pocket knife, flipping it open and then holding out his hand. I stared at it confused, "what?"

"Give me your hand."

"No," he rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"You big baby," he muttered, grabbing my left hand and then turning it over. He cut into my palm and I tried to yank my hand back as I winced.

"Let go!"

"Look," he snapped, lifting my palm up. I glanced at it. "What? What! I don't see-," I cut off, watching as the blood pooled. I titled my head, really looking now, than staring at my palm as Adam released it.

My blood, it was weird. It was red, and it bled like it should, but, there was almost like something in it, black flecks. As though there was something in my blood stream, there wasn't a lot and it was just, _there_. As low, it was contaminated, poisoned or something. _Tainted._ "I-I don't understand, it wasn't like that before. I would've noticed something wrong with my own blood!"

I was panicking, I looked up, about to freak out, only to find Adam right in front of me, looking down at me. He took my hands gently, both of them, putting them at my sides. "Calm down, it'll be okay," he said evenly.

I could feel his breath on my face, he was so close and I swallowed hard, trying to pretend that feeling inside of me wasn't there, a feeling I did not want to name. He was so close to me, and I got the sudden urge to lean into him. I did the opposite. I had to protect myself, however that may be.

I backed up, shaking my head, thinking. I had to think. That was my problem all the time. I didn't think. I acted. But I had to think right now. I had to think about this, I couldn't jump to conclusions without knowing the facts, the truth.

"What are you thinking?" Nate asked, all of them watching me as I started to pace a little bit.

"Just, just give me a minute," I breathed low, trying to think through the mess of thoughts. I was spun, completely and utterly spun.

I had known something was wrong for a while now. That feeling I'd had since the nurse said I shouldn't heal as fast as I did, had started my doubts. So many things had come up since then. I ran a hand through my hair as I turned back to Adam. "Where is Jason?"

"Who?" half of the room asked.

Ice hit my veins.

They looked totally thrown. They had no idea who Jason was. And they would've known at least that if they had been the ones to take him, if they had been the people that slaughtered Gamma. "It really wasn't you."

So why were so many of us sent to hunt them, another thought occurred to me. "What was my team doing at your party?"

Adam inclined his head, "you don't know? They tried to abduct a Council member, we kept that out of the press, but the Council really wants someone to find you. They think you're behind the missing council seats. They'd probably kill you without ever even telling the humans they had found you."

Kale added, "the Council doesn't know you're here, with us, nor do they know we were looking for you. We don't plan on telling them you're with us either. When Adam demanded the guard not to touch you, they were only told he wanted you questioned."

That bad feeling was building. "Which council member?"

"A shape shifter, she ran the packs in Europe and Asia. She's dead now, no body was ever recovered though."

"Oh god," I groaned, taking my face in my hands and looking away.

It was _us_. They had failed at the abduction the first time around, and when I was knocked out, they went after her again. "What is it?" Kale asked cautiously.

I swallowed hard, I felt like I was going to be sick. Nothing was making sense, nothing added up! Why would the School abduct Council members? It made no sense to me. And if it was the School behind all four missing leaders, what were they doing with them? We knew everything about the physiology of them, everything that mattered. Even if they had wanted to study them, why would they choose people that were more or less leaders of their clan, celebrities? Why not Other's that wouldn't be missed? We were trying to save lives, killing the governing leaders would cause violence between all of the clans and the humans.

Why would the School want Kade and Kale dead? Was that really what happened, or were they trying to kidnap the twins too? What the hell was going on?

And what the fuck did they do to my blood?

"Hello!" a hand waved in my face. I grabbed Kale's wrist as it flew across my face a second time.

"Quit it," I said with a frown.

"Well?" Kale asked impatiently.

I pursed my lips, and Kade sighed, "she's not going to say anything. She still doesn't trust us. Brainwashed, remember?"

I threw him a dark look. I was not brain washed. Anymore. Mostly. I hoped.

"Where did you get that scar?" Adam asked when I remained silent.

"What scar?"

"The one that's on your stomach, I don't recall seeing such a wound on you before," he said, nodding at mid-section.

I slid my hand up my shirt, the scar wasn't raised any more. Like always, it would be gone soon. "I-I don't know," I admitted.

"Well, what do you know?" Nate asked eyebrows raised.

"When we returned to the compound after the failed missions," I shook my head, recalling the total bust of a mission those turned out to be. "Our Lieutenant General was angry, mostly at me because I'd failed the most. He really wanted you guys dead," I scratched the back of my head, almost awkwardly, "were supposed to report injuries, I _may_ have neglected to mention you bit me."

I blushed a little, but that and my pinking cheeks made Adam grin, "neglected?"

"More like down right denied," I moved on from that, quickly, "Anywho, he shoved me, and I guess he saw a bit of the wound and then they all saw it. I don't know what happened, but I could tell he was really freaked out over it," they shared looks, and I realized there was something to it. I continued, because I was hoping if I played nice, they would give me some real answers. "Jared ordered the team to cuff me, we fought. I lost. Then a doctor came out of nowhere and shoved a needle into my arm. I woke up eight days later, having changed a little bit, physically speaking. My eyes were darker and there was a six month old surgical scar on me. Jared says all he knows is that I was tested to make sure I hadn't been compromised."

"And do you believe him?" Nate asked skeptically.

"Why do they need to cut open my stomach to find out if I'd been compromised? He's lying, I just- don't know why," I looked away. It really burned me, the idea that Jared and everyone else might've been betraying me this entire time.

"What do you think they did to you?" Adam said his words slowly and deliberately.

My jaw clenched, I had some theories, but I didn't want to speculate because if I did, then I might react without thinking. "You know what they did, or at least, you think you do," Kale said softly, all of them gave me sad, worried looks now.

"Why would you stay there?" Kade asked, there was a harsh edge to his voice.

My jaw clenched harder, and I crossed my arms, hugging myself a little. "Where else could I go?"

They didn't like that question much.

Adam took charge, "first thing we need to do. Find out what is in her blood. We'll take a sample, I have a friend that can take a look at it. We-," I cut him off.

"No! No one is taking my blood. I'm tagged human, I need to stay that way, if there is sudden abnormality that wasn't reported especially after my tag was wiped from the system, red flags will go up in every government building in this hemisphere. I don't exist, and it needs to stay that way."

"You don't exist?" Nate scoffed, "sweetheart, you're all over news and social media, you exist."

"Not in the system, not anymore."

"How do you know?" Kade asked me. When I paused, he continued, "seriously? How do you know you don't exist? Because they told you? And who is they? Do you even know who you're working for?"

I had no answers for any of that.

"We should send her blood out," Kade said to Adam.

Adam who had been watching me closely, sighed, "no. She's right. She needs to keep as low a profile as possible. I'll speak to some trusted associates on and off the Council. Maybe they've heard of tainted blood. She's not sick, she doesn't smell sick," my nose scrunched up at that, "but whatever is in her blood, I have a bad feeling it's nothing good."

"Do you think it'll kill her?"

Alarm bells went off, "what?" I blurted out.

"No, you heard what Carter said, she's their greatest asset. They wouldn't risk her health," Kale said to his brother. Kade looked unconvinced.

"How do you know Carter?" I asked them.

They shared looks, finally, Nate admitted, almost embarrassedly, "he's in the basement."

"What?" I shouted in disbelief. "You kidnapped _my boss_ too?"

"No, he came to us," Adam said cautiously.

"Why would he go looking for you? Where are we?"

They shared looks, again. I was getting really sick of people debating how to handle me with silent conversations right in front of my face. Was I really so bad? I made an agitated sound, "why do you need to know where we are?" Kade countered.

I counted to ten. Don't go crazy, they bite. And they've pretty well kicked your ass three times now. "Am I a prisoner here?" my voice was made of ice.

These assholes shared looks again. That was all the confirmation I needed. My veins filled with ice next. "You just finished telling me you wouldn't cage me in like the School did!" I accused of Adam.

He stared me down, eyes narrowing a little, "I told you I wouldn't cage you in this room. You need to stay here, on this property, where we can keep you safe."

I burst out laughing, I couldn't help it. "Are you fucking kidding me?" I was shouting now, I didn't care. "Do you have any idea who the fuck your dealing with? You are all fucking bat shit crazy if you think you can keep me here for long! You must not have heard the words Carter likes to put next to my name, I'll fill you in, unpredictable, reckless, dangerous, temperamental! Shall I continue?"

They all shared amused looks. Oh god, that was not helping!

Jared hadn't been kidding, I must look ridiculous when I'm pissed off. "Yeah, those are thee reason you aren't going anywhere," Adam said smirking at me. "Reckless and temperamental, you'll be spotted and if the humans don't get to you, the Council will, and with either of them, you'll be in for a world of hurt. Just stay here."

"Why am I even here? Better yet, why do you care what happens to me at all? I tried to kill you, at this point I'm still thinking about it!"

"We don't intend to keep you here for long. Just give it a few days, you'll probably choose to stay when given the option," Nate was smirking at me now too. They all were grinning or smiling, as if there was something I didn't know.

I was two seconds from losing it and I think Adam was starting to see that. "Let's go speak to Carter, he's been asking for you."

I deflated. Cause, well, that was actually a good idea.

"You going to give me some pants or something at least?" I asked begrudgingly.

Adam grinned crookedly, "I kind of like you as you are. I liked you more without the shirt. I bet you Carter would too."

"Ew! Why would you go there?"

They laughed. Adam took my hand, pulling me out of the room.


	8. In The Enemies Arms

I tugged my hand out of his after a moment and he must've expected as much because he didn't even glance at me.

I didn't like how it felt when they touched me. No, that was wrong. I liked how it felt _too much_. It shouldn't be that way. Every Other that ever laid a hand on me, even brushed their skin against mine accidently, shared even just a little breathing space with me, made me want to gut them.

So why is it, when Adam and the others get anywhere close to me, I feel shaky and breathless? I didn't get it. They may have been gorgeous, but most supe's were. And it's not like they were particularly charming or anything. It had to be something else, something not natural, and I had the feeling they knew exactly what that was. What I was wondering, was whether they were even going to tell me. They had brushed it off every time I asked why I was here, a nagging thought kept telling me there was something huge, life shattering, -not changing, shattering-, that they weren't telling me.

Adam led me through a maze of hallways and corridors, before leading me down another hidden door into a basement. You know, they must just pick overly complex houses just to mess with potential criminals that might try something. I would need to mentally map out this place several times before I finally figured out how to just find the front door. I didn't even know where I was now, just that we'd reached a hidden basement door entrance.

"Why did you lock him up if he came here of his own accord?" I asked Adam as we descended the concrete steps.

"We didn't have a choice, you'll understand why in a minute."

There was so much that didn't make sense, the questions I had swirling in my head, so many of them that my head was starting to hurt. "Are you okay?" Adam asked, glancing at my pained expression.

I shook my head, trying to push the mental throb away. "No. But I will be. I don't like this uncertainty. I liked when everything was black and white. It made things simple," I said truthfully.

He gave me sad smile, "life is never simple, nor is it black and white. It's all shades of grey, especially lives like ours, yours and mine."

"I'll be honest, I wish it wasn't shades of grey, I liked when it was good or bad, right and wrong, black and white."

He gave me a surprised look, "you really mean that, don't you?"

I paused, turning to him and he did the same. "I might be responsible for the murders of innocent Other's. Dozens that could've been good people, so yes, I wish things were that simple. I wish you were the bad guy I've been led to believe, or even three quarters of the bad guy, I would be okay with that killing you," he rolled his eyes, shaking his head a little in exasperation. "I wish I was still the bad guy playing good guy instead of the freak that got manipulated into slaughtering innocent people."

He looked incredibly troubled now. "What do you mean, 'freak', 'the bad guy playing good guy'? Why do you think you're the bad guy?"

"Because I am!" I shook my head again, "nothing, never mind," I looked around, "Where's Carter?"

He nodded down the hall, "we can go in, but don't get too close to him."

He unlocked and opened the door, and I pushed it open and stepped inside. It was a cell, bed, toilet, chains around his wrists. He was disheveled and dirty. He was a mess.

"Carter?" I said in disbelief.

His eyes snapped open and he was up in an instant and with blurring speed. He was staring at me wide eyed. And my breath caught. His eyes, they were red, blood red, practically glowing. "You came, I didn't think you would come," he sounded so relieved, and, _off_. He felt so off. It was setting me on edge.

I glanced at Adam awkwardly, "well, it took some convincing," I said sarcastically.

Carter chuckled, "I would expect as much."

I got to the point, didn't have a lot of sympathy for one of the men that held me down and drugged me. "Council members are missing and I'm being blamed for it, these guys weren't responsible for any of the deaths you told me they committed, there is something wrong with me and we still have no idea where Jason is. What in _the hell_ is going on?"

He grimaced, "I don't know much. My mind is all mixed up." Oh, I could believe that.

"He couldn't tell us much about your actual location, it's why it took so long to find you. Although, he did have a lot to say about you, and he did keep saying the same thing when he got here," Adam had a tense tone of voice, "over and over again, he said, 'you have to save her'."

"Save who?" I asked Carter.

"You!"

I did a double take. "Me? I'm fine," I glanced at Adam, adding, "kind of I guess." He rolled his eyes at me. I had a feeling Adam would be doing that a lot because of me.

"No you aren't," he shook his head furiously. I shuddered, he was crazed, he seemed so wrong inside. I could feel it, he was a big jumbled mess and I didn't want to be here anymore. I was truly concerned the crazy would rub off on me, more than it already was.

"What happened to you, Carter? You just, disappeared!"

"I woke up in the woods, and I knew that the only way for you to be safe was if the St. Delphi's found you. I-I couldn't remember," he was thinking hard, squinting at me like he wasn't seeing me clearly, "I remember a door bell, and then just pain, a lot of pain."

I shifted uneasily. He kept going, "I can hardly remember anything. I couldn't remember where I used to work, what my last name was, my daughter's name. All I could see or think about was you and that you were in so much danger."

"From what? How could the St. Delphi's help me? I hate Other's!" I meant it. I still hated supe's with a passion, the St. Delphi's just seemed to have a strange effect on me is all.

Carter was an Other now. I felt it on him. "I can't remember!" he shouted, cradling his head in his hands.

"Well try!" I shouted back. He had answers somewhere in his head, answers I needed.

"Yo-you're connected to them, I can't remember," he groaned now, he started smacking the side of his head a little. I jerked forward to stop him, but Adam grabbed my arm, pulling me back even further. "He's unstable, I'm not letting him within touching distance of you. I think he might try and hurt you, he talks about you in a weird way sometimes," Adam admitted, speaking too low for Carter to hear. "Like your, it's hard to explain, precious? But then he talks about how bad you are, and he's said how he'd like to taste the light and darkness inside of you."

What. The. Fuck?! What the hell did that even mean? Another shudder went through me.

I didn't respond to Adam except to pull my arm out of his grasp and then speak to Carter. "Yeah, you sent me to kill them." Was he hit over the head or something? How could he not remember where he worked? His own child? Why did he remember me? Unease swirled in me.

"No!" he shouted, lunging forward abruptly, Adam pulled me behind him a little this time when he grabbed me. Shielding me protectively, rather ironic all things considered. Carter didn't seem to notice, "No, that's not the connection! It was before!"

"Before what?" I asked, peaking around Adam, careful not to touch him. I clearly wasn't going to be able to do a Q&A so I'd have to settle for what he spoke about on his own.

"I-I can't remember. Before you came to us, there was a connection to them and we broke it."

Huh? How could I be connected to them before the School? I came to the school at three months old. I had never even been within the same city as them until I'd been assigned to kill them. "I-I don't understand," I said in frustration. "If I were in danger, which I have been for a while now, normal job hazards not with-standing. How could they possibly help me in any way?"

I was safe from the Council and the humans at the School. Wasn't safe from the School at the School though, not even safe from my own family and friends. But all things considered, it was probably the safest place for me, at least, it had been until I'd found the scar. Was I even safe with a bunch of First Blood's? I doubted it.

"Th-the blood, the connection, the blood, the blood!" _what?_ "Follow the blood! Blood leads to the red. Blood leads to The Claiming, The Claiming leads above and below. The guardian and the demons. Always the blood!"

I blurted out, "What?" _the hell?_ "The Claiming?" I muttered, what the hell was that? I'd never heard that term before. Guardians, demons, red, blood, what the hell was he talking about?

I glanced at Adam's suddenly rigid body and pitch black eyes. "Adam, what is 'The Claiming'?"

He looked like he was about to kill Carter, who basically hadn't even registered his presence. Carter began mumbling incoherently and when Adam didn't respond I turned back to Carter, "Carter, what is The Claiming?"

He looked up at me and i watched as his eyes started to turn red, the whites were turning red with blood. Not completely, just in the corners, as if they were going bloodshot. "They'll be here soon. They're coming for you. He's coming for you too."

He started repeating himself and I just shook my head, he had become crazier and crazier. I didn't know what any of that meant. "Adam?" he glanced down at me, gaze hard. "What is he talking about?"

"I don't know, we'll come back later, maybe he'll make more sense," Adam didn't sound like he really believed that.

I was totally confused and freaked out as he tugged me out of the cell. Adam locked the door, and led me back upstairs, but I couldn't help but glance back as we reached the steps though.

That bad feeling was back again, as this rate, it was starting to become a daily occurrence.

Adam led me into a kitchen, "I need to do some work in the office. Are you okay on your own?"

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Yes, thank you Adam, I did turn sixteen, not six, this year."

He rolled his eyes, "oh I can believe you're sixteen."

Was that an insult? I wasn't sure, so I let it go, "Eat and hang out. I'll see if I can figure out what your boss is going on about, I'll look into it, okay?"

I just nodded, feeling that unease again. I got myself a glass of ginger ale and decided to skip food, I wasn't all that hungry. I went through the drawers and eventually found some paper. I sat down at the dining room table and wrote down everything Carter had sputtered, everything that seemed even slightly significant.

But nothing I read made sense to me. It didn't connect. Not really. Was he talking about my blood because it was tainted? Or was it something else?

Guardians, we were guardians, in a way. But, that didn't feel right to me, I got the impression the School was not what he meant. That was a big leap, from assassin to guardian. Demons? Demons didn't exist anymore, hadn't since the supernatural treaty waged war centuries ago, banishing them all to hell. Did he mean inner demons? Lord knows I had a lot of those. Damn. I couldn't be sure.

What was The Claiming? That really didn't sound good, none of it did. Carter wasn't one to speak in riddles, he was up front about everything, always had been a straight-to-the-point General. Whatever happened to him had really messed him up.

The longer I thought about it, the more I realized I needed to go back to the School. I needed my files, and maybe even Carter's. He must know something. He had to. And he was talking about before I'd been with the School. But how, my parents maybe?

Unfortunately, I knew good and well the St. Delphi's would not be on board with me going back. Adam said it himself, I was a prisoner, technically speaking. I bet they would know the moment I stepped outside.

I sighed, planting my head down on the table.

What was I going to do?

"Christ, could you be more depressed about being here," Kade said strolling into the room and going the fridge.

"I'm bored!"

He glanced at me, opening a beer, "what would you usually be doing right about now?"

"Training! Possible assignment and research and if no assignment, more training and if I've totally exhausted my team before dinner then I spend time in the library. I can't even do research because I don't know what to look for or even where. Can't really look up blood tainted black on the internet, I never even read anything like that in the specie dossiers. I don't know what Adam expects to find that I don't already know about."

He shrugged, "don't know what to say about the research bit. We do have a library, but you seem kind of like an energizer bunny on crack." Huh? He grinned at my baffled expression, "So, energizer bunny, train. We have a fully equipped gym, a hiking trail. Take your pick."

That piqued my interest, I stared at him. "Really?"

He nodded, "come on. Nate's gone for a few hours, Adam's still up in his office, yelling into the phone and Kale is gone to check out your camp."

"What?" I asked in alarm. "Why?"

Kade gave me a scrutinizing look, than relaxed, "they're going to look for you. They wont just let their greatest asset, a sixteen year old no less, vanish with a coven of centuries old First Bloods. Especially unwillingly. That entire place will drop everything to find you. Kale's the stealthiest of all of us, he'll find out what they're planning."

I didn't know how to feel about that. Did I want them to be found? Did I want to be found and dragged back? They'd locked me up and they would do it again, whether I went back of my own free will or not. I had been planning to bail when they kidnapped me out of the School. I looked down at the cut on my palm. It was healing quickly, like my wounds normally did. But I could see the blood as if it were pooling, the specks of black. Anger rose in me. Someone at the School put that inside of me, messed with my blood and I didn't like that.

Kade had been watching the growing display of rage on my face. "Yeah, you could do with a little sparring. Follow me," he reached into the fridge, grabbing a six pack of beer and then passed me one, leading me out.

I nearly chugged the entire thing. He smirked, "you're kind of a booze hound, aren't you?"

I shrugged, "the alcohol helps sometimes."

"Helps with what?" he asked intrigued.

Shame and guilt filled me, I looked away, "the darkness," I murmured, throwing back the rest.

He paused, looking at me weird, confused and worried. "Care to elaborate?"

I just shook my head. No I didn't. I shouldn't have said anything, I never even considered sharing that with anyone at the School. I had hinted at it to Fynn, but though he tried to help me, I don't think he ever fully understood what went on inside of me, the constant storm. We may have been similar, practically identical, but Fynn didn't have a constant tornado tearing through him all of the time, not the way I did. He held darkness. Fynn was all light. I was the dark one. He made it easier to pretend. Maybe that's why things were so hard, why they were changing. Fynn was my balance, he'd been killed in front of me and I had fallen apart.

I was still broken, even now, at this moment.

Kade had been watching me mutely, the pain in my eyes, but he didn't say anything. He just wordlessly passed me another can as we reached the back of the house. I accepted it gratefully.

He opened the doors, setting the cans down on a patio table. He looked me up and down, "uh, I guess I should've gotten you some shorts."

I smirked, "oh, now that we'll be sparring my lack of pants and exposed thighs are a problem? Why, because I'll have them wrapped around you half the time?"

His gaze darkened, and he took a step towards me, his eyes dropped lower and lower, scanning me up and down so completely it was like he had reached out and touched me. I held back the shiver, but I couldn't hide the slowly elevating breathing.

"Baby girl, I have no problems with that," he said darkly.

I smirked even more, jumped up, wrapping my legs around him and twisted us both hard. He hit the ground with a grunt and a huff. I rolled off of him, flipping back up.

I went for another beer, but as I took two steps forward, he gripped my ankle and tugged. I threw my arms out, catching myself, and then turned and kicked out. He blocked it, and then rolled, standing back up.

I flipped back up again, rolling my shoulders. We circled one another, and he watched me, waiting. He wanted me to attack first. I had no problems doing just that.

We sparred for a few hours, taking a break every now and again to have a drink. Adam watched us from his office for a good hour once he'd seen us. I could see him talking on his phone a lot of the time. I didn't care to try and read his lips. He told me he was going to look into everything.

I was exhausted by the time we called it quits. Which was a first.

Kade had stamina, it was crazy and it was awesome. He could just keep going, and I loved it. My team, they couldn't spar with me longer than an hour because I was too hard on them. Even when I tried not to be. Kade had no problems being my punching bag. In fact, I think he kind of got off on it. Not to say he didn't fight back, boy did he.

Living as long as he did, he was fun to spar with. He could move the same way as me, he had the same reflexes and strengths and speeds. We were evenly matched, despite the differences in our physical bodies.

It led me to believe, one on one, I could handle these guys. After what had happened in my bedroom at the School, how quickly Nate had ended the fight, angry or not, I hadn't been so sure. But the more we fought, the more I got to know there style. I was underestimating them, that was the problem. This whole time I'd assumed I was the better warrior. I wasn't. I would have to remember that. My own self-assured personality made me too cocky when it came to these guys. I needed to use every strength and advantage and all of my focus, to fight them.

It was dark by the time we made our way back into the house. Adam was no longer in his office, and both Nate and Kale were back. I was sweating, dirty, my hair and the shirt clung to me and I was still panting as we entered the kitchen. I could feel all four of them watching as I grabbed a bottle of whisky out of the cabinet.

"Maybe you should take it easy on the liquor, you've had six beers already and I haven't seen you eat once since we've tracked you down," Kade said, frowning.

I took a pull from the bottle. "No alcohol on the compound. Leave me be," I warned him evenly.

He shrugged, "at least share."

I grinned, passing the bottle to him after another hearty pull.

I glanced at the others. "Anything of interest to share?" I dropped down heavily, into a seat next to Kale.

"Kale?" Adam prodded but looked at me closely, as though I was about to say I was actually a talking praying mantis and this was just some human skin I wore and they were my next victims. Huh, must be the alcohol making me think so weird.

"They don't where you are, but from what I could see, they have some way to find you, any idea how?" Kale asked me, all of them watching me closely.

I frowned, thinking. What popped into my head left me unsure. For some reason I kept thinking back to the night where I'd danced at that club, the last kill I'd made. A werewolf. I kept going back to when we loaded our weapons and when we were up on the roof. But it wasn't making sense to me, that had nothing to do with me, let alone a way to track me.

So eventually, I shrugged.

My mind was too fuddled from the alcohol, maybe I'd remember in the morning why that seemed so significant. "I can't think of anything. You said you went through my stuff, so if anyone would know," I said to them, "you removed the panic button before we got here right? What did you do with it?"

Adam straightened, "we took it off of you when we left the city, we crushed it and dumped it down a sewer. It shouldn't work at all by now."

"Well, I don't know. Did you go through any cameras, traffic stops with a video feed? Were you speeding and maybe a cop ran your plates on the interstate? Are the vehicles registered to you, is there GPS on any of them?"

They shared looks, "no, no to all of that, were basically in the middle of nowhere. There are very few properties up this way, we own most of this land, but it's untraceable to us, we didn't use our coven name," Nate said thoughtfully.

"Maybe it's bullshit, maybe they're just planning on raiding all of your properties. It's what I would do, you can hack into government databases, human or not, if you know where to search. Our tech department is pretty epic."

"I was under the impression they had a way to find you, not a trial and error thing going," Kale said, looking at me and then looked at Adam. Adam looked worried, and he was thinking.

I didn't care about that right now.

Everyone turned to look at me incredulously. "What?" I asked confused.

"You're not worried they'll find you?" Adam asked, eyebrows raised. "You seemed pretty desperate to get out of here when you were about to climb out your bedroom window this afternoon."

I hadn't realized I'd said that aloud. Kade was right, I should lay off the alcohol a little bit, especially on an empty stomach. "Well, you kind of forced me to face up to some stuff I wasn't necessarily ready to, my boss is locked up in your basement, I have nowhere else to go and even if they did find me, well, you do recall I was literally on lock down, remember? Not in a big rush to get out of here or go back, especially if you can help me fix Carter and get some answers from your Council."

"Even if Carter was the one that messed with your blood?" Kale asked me eyebrows raised.

"If you can't fix Carter, we should put a bullet in him and I'll head out on my way! I'm a hunter, I'd be just fine on my own!"

Adam searched my gaze a moment, before replying, "no, you aren't going anywhere."

Cue the eye roll, he ignored me, and I realized I'd said that out loud as well. "An associate, an historian in the Council thinks he may know what's wrong with Carter. He'll be by in a few days to look at him. The sooner we figure out what happened to him, the sooner we can figure out all the crap he's been spewing, the better. None of it sounded good."

"Wait," I lifted the paper out of my pocket, looking it over. "Maybe they do have a way to find me, Carter said 'they're coming for you'. Remember? He said that a couple times, as well as 'he's coming for you'. You think he's talking about two different people?"

Adam's eyes widened. As if that hadn't occurred to him. I continued thoughtfully, "I don't' think they'll find me, short of using a drone to somehow find the place. Is it possible they tagged your vehicle or something? Maybe that's how, there's a trace on the vehicle."

They turned to look at Nate. He shook his head, "no, that's impossible. I ran the program on the vehicle. I found a trace, but I got rid of it halfway out of the city."

"Did you do a scan afterwards? Is it possible there were two?" I asked, "I've done that before, put two in the same place, one deeper so it isn't seen when the other one is removed, but still in the same spot."

He bit out a curse, jumped up and rushed out of the house. They looked back at me and I smirked triumphantly, pleased with myself, "you know, I almost thought maybe I should lay off the whisky, but, as it turns out, I'm a genius when I'm drunk. Now, gimmie!"

Kade rolled his eyes and passed the bottle back to me. "You are so immature."

"I guess that makes you old," I shot at him.

Kale laughed at him, I turned to him, "what are you smirking at? You're the same age as him! You're twins, you're old too!"

Kade laughed now, Adam rolled his eyes, "she's slurring."

"She's kind of hilarious though, you hear all the weird shit she was shouting when they were sparring? I almost thought about making some popcorn and filming it for a movie night!" Kale said smirking at me as I rolled my eyes and took another drink of the bottle. I could hardly remember any of what I'd said, apparently I was entertaining.

Adan looked at me sternly, "I think it's time you slept this off. All that sparring probably wasn't wise."

"You're just mad it wasn't you on top of me," I muttered, yawning as I began thinking about getting some sleep.

Adam tugged the bottle from my grip, looking at Kale, "take her to bed. We'll help search the vehicle and look over everything that was at the facility with us, weapons and clothes, electronics and supplies."

Adam turned to me after Kale gave him a nod, "get some rest, and eat something before you drink like this, it's not healthy."

I saluted him and Adam let out a low growl in aggravation and the twins grinned at one another. Kade took a drink from the bottle, pulling it out of my reach when I tried to grab at it again.

"Come on, alchy, time for bed," Kale helped me stand, before lifting me into his arms easily. "You're tiny, you know that, baby girl?" he murmured as we headed out of the kitchen.

"Not short, fun-size," I mumbled, eyelids getting heavier.

I heard Kade bark out a laugh at that from behind us, and Kale responded, "I didn't say short."

"Short, tiny, I've been called worse," I yawned again.

Kale's arms were really comfy under me and I couldn't help but snuggle in and relax in his arms. He should be a professional couch or bean bag chair or something.

"Don't ever say that again, Kade will never let me live it down! Go to sleep." Huh, I kept speaking out loud, I must be getting more and more out of it.

"No, I'm all sweaty and gross, shower first!"

"Not a chance. You'll drown or something."

"In a shower?"

Kale scoffed, "With your luck? Yes. You'd find a way."

I scowled up at him, "well you can stand guard then. But I need to shower. Been kicking your brothers ass all night."

"Yeah, I saw. I caught the last act."

Something else occurred to me, "where was Nate today? Kade wouldn't say."

I could tell right away by the look on Kale's face that he didn't want to answer. "Was he doing something bad?"

"No, nothing illegal or immoral or anything like that, well, maybe kind of immoral, I guess it depends on how you look at it."

My curiosity piqued. "Well, where was he?"

We entered the room I'd woken up in and Kale carried me across the room to another door, nudging it open with his foot. He set me down on the toilet seat and started the water. Then he sighed, "he was trying to find out more about where you were born, who you were born to. Adam told us what Carter said. Thinks he might've meant your birth parents when he kept talking about your connection to us before that military place and the blood thing."

"You say that as if I had non-birth parents," I thought, looking up a moment as I tried to figure out if that even made sense.

"Didn't you? Who raised you?"

I snorted, "not unless you count dozens of older brothers and sisters."

Kale shrugged, "I guess it depends on how well they treated you."

I sighed, feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders. "Then, 'no'. No parents, most of the other kids hated me at the School, I set the bar pretty high once I started training. Patterson says I'm going to get myself killed because of how I am. Says how I am is a result of the 'hostile environment' I was brought up in. I just think I'm wrong inside."

Kale rolled his eyes, "there is nothing wrong with you. People are the way they are. You're just fine as you are, trust me. You're perfect baby girl."

"Baby girl?" I repeated, lifting my arms as he helped me pull the sweat soaked shirt off. He kept calling me that, Kade had called me that earlier too.

Kale shrugged, "yeah, you make us all feel super protective of you. God knows why, it's not like you need a protector. But, you got four now."

"Yeah, I have four back at the compound, used to have five," I said sighing and frowning. I didn't like thinking about Fynn. It physically hurt just as much as it emotionally. Like my heart was being cut open and flicked over and over again.

Kale paused for a moment, eyebrows furrowing, then looked back up at me. "What did you just say?"

"I have four back at the compound, used to have five," I repeated more carefully. I was pretty sure that was what I said.

His expression became troubled, under his breath, he repeated, "you have four. There's five of you on your team? I thought there were six to each."

"No, Fynn died right after my sixteenth birthday, just a couple months back. It was my fault. A fey I thought was a level five, turned out to be a level three. I tortured him for burning Fynn alive."

"Who was the fey?" when I didn't say anything but stare at him, he spoke tensely, "Mara, there are no dead or missing level three fire fey's."

"Aacheron, his name was Aacheron."

Kale stared at me, "Aacheron wasn't a level three, but a level five. Your intel was right. You say he burned your friend alive, in front of you, you saw this with your own two eyes?"

I nodded, "In seconds. I was never right after that, I stopped hanging out with the team as much. Fynn was the closest thing I had to an actual family, he was my best friend, my father, my mother, he was my brother more than the others, his death wrecked me."

Fynn has always loved me and cared for me, he was never jealous, always so proud. He had basically raised me out of diapers. Some of my earliest memories were of him. And they went back pretty far, I had a good memory. I remember Fynn looking down at me and picking me up, I knew I was still small, because I had seen my tiny body in his arms when I'd looked down. I couldn't have been more than one or two.

Kale looked at me seriously, eyes rising in emotion I couldn't place, "Aacheron could not have set anyone on fire, he could burn people, but he can't create an actual flame. Did he say anything when you killed him?"

"Other than screaming as I killed him, no. Wait, he couldn't have killed Fynn?" I stared at him, not understanding. "Then how did Fynn die? Aacheron started the fire, I saw it, I was there! The flame left his hand and it spread all over Fynn. I watched him burn!" I could see it now. See the way Fynn stared at me as he burned, the fear, agony and desperation in his eyes. Guilt filled me and my hands balled up into fists as I trembled at the memory.

"We searched the weapons bag and clothing you had at the hotel in L.A. You had a flask with a highly flammable, odorless liquid. Is it possible that-," my eyes widened and I reached out as the world tilted.

My voice was barely about a whisper as I spoke in horror and devastation, "Oh god, Asher, he spilt a bottle of water on Fynn, but he never actually drank out of it. I assumed it was water, so did Fynn. Asher murdered him, why would Asher do that to one our own?"

"No one ever replaced Fynn, someone replaced all of the other soldiers we lost. There are six on every team except for ours," I looked up at Kale questioningly, not understanding any of this, "why wouldn't they fill his spot?"

Kale gazed at me, and I heard him say it, though he didn't speak the words. There were five now, if I went back, five to Alpha and five here if I accepted the St. Delphi's help. Why did that number matter again? Was it just a coincidence, I wasn't much of a believer in coincidences. I had thought it was weird, when someone died on a team, they were always replaced.

Kale didn't answer that question, he instructed me instead. "Take your shower, get some rest, I'll check on you in a bit. Okay? I need to talk to Adam. Are you alright?" he was concerned.

I gave a jerky nod. "I'll be fine." I wasn't. I gave him a shaky smile that probably looked more pained then reassuring, "I'm exhausted anyway."

He knelt down, sighing a little. He cupped the side of my face and I closed my eyes, leaning into the touch. My usual unease at them being close was nowhere to be found, probably the alcohol, lowering inhibitions and all that. "I'm sorry about your friend. We'll get to the bottom of this, I swear to you. We'll figure this all out."

I didn't say anything, but I don't think he expected me to. Kale kissed my forehead, and then slipped out of the bathroom quietly.

I let out the broken gasp I'd been holding in, I tried to bite back the tears and then pulled off the shirt, bra and panties and climbed into the shower. I forced myself not to think until I had climbed into the bed, still had no clothes so I ended up pulling the towel off and just tugging the blanket up over my naked body.

I didn't think, I wouldn't let myself. I couldn't do it. I just, couldn't do this. I was getting so tired of this, this feeling of being at a total loss, things being discovered that I didn't want to come to light. I couldn't keep going like this. Emotion was drowning in me and I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing myself into a darkened and restless oblivion.

 _Fynn was right behind me, I didn't know where the other four had disappeared off to, but I was just five steps away from the target. I launched myself forward, crashing into the fey we were hunting. We rolled through the dirt, I jumped up, throwing my fist into his face, and he swore at me, before his hand went up, burning red as sparks erupted. I didn't care, he couldn't really hurt me._

" _Mara!" Fynn shouted as he crashed into me, throwing me off of him. He staggered over the fey and I turned as suddenly there was a loud 'whoosh' sound. Fire exploded between them and then Fynn was engulfed, flames all over his chest and spreading fast._

 _I gasped, stumbling up as he screamed into the night air, spinning and waving his arms. "Oh my god," I rushed towards him, until someone else grabbed me from behind._

" _No, Mara, stop! It's too late!" Jared was shouting over Fynn's screams and I shook every time he did, the sound rocking me to my core._

 _A sob left me and I watched, stunned, tears streaming down my face as Fynn dropped to his knees, smoke and fire billowing high around him. I could feel the heat on my face from here._

 _I fell back, Jared's arms around me as Fynn fell forward, skin black and peeling. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think. All I could see was the fire. The fire that had taken his life, the fire that the fey had caused._

 _I stilled, turning and seeing the fey backing away from Fynn wide eyed. I shoved Jared away from me, ignoring his questioning, "Mara?"_

 _Breathing hard, I stood up, staring down the fey in fury. I was trembling I was so mad. "You! You did this!" I was seething, and the fey, he stared up at me speechless._

" _N-No, I-I didn't mean-I," he stammered into incoherent sentences and I took a menacing step forward._

" _You know, I was just going to shove an iron dagger through your heart and be done with it. You killed my best friend, I don't feel so inclined to show mercy anymore," I grabbed him up by his shirt, pulling him up just to slam my fist into his face._

 _His hand burned red again and he reached up, his palm meeting my chest. He must've been out of juice, because I didn't explode in flames like Fynn had. I didn't even feel the burn, I was running on pure fury and vengeance._

" _Nice try," I threw my fist into his face, jumping on top of him and wailing on him, throwing my fist into his face over and over again a dozen times._

 _I was still pissed even when he was nearly passed out, face covered in blood and swelling. I turned to Nick, "give me your lighter and flask!" We weren't hunting vamps, so I didn't have that stuff on me. But Nick smoked and I knew he'd probably have both. He was always a bit of a pyromaniac. Now it was my turn._

" _Wh-what?" he backed up a step as though I'd slapped him._

" _Your lighter and flask, now, Nick!"_

 _He jerked forward, passing them to me wide eyed. As the fey groaned beneath me, Camdon spoke uneasily, "Mara, honey, what are you doing?" he put his hand on my shoulder and I shook it off. I didn't want anyone to touch me, not now, not ever again. Fynn was the only that had managed to tear down my issues with touch and now he was gone. I would never let anyone touch me the way he had been able to, however small, ever again._

" _What does it look like?" I ripped open the fey's shirt, lifting myself up over him and dousing his crotch and chest all the way up to his neck with the flask. I lit the match, staring down at the fey with a smirk. "At least now you'll know what it feels like," I dropped it over the zipper and button of his soaked jeans, watching as the fire lit up soundlessly._

 _He writhed beneath me, and I stepped on his arm to keep him grounded. He started groaning and then eventually his pained sounds turning to screams of agony as the clothes lit up too. Someone pulled me back as my shorts started to catch fire. I didn't even feel it. I didn't feel anything._

 _I didn't even blink, I just, watched as the fey burned alive. I could feel the others staring at me wordlessly, I didn't care. No one would ever get a clean-cut kill after murdering one of ours, not like that, not so painfully, in front of me no less. I didn't care if it made me a monster no better than those I hunted. I wouldn't watch people I loved die in such an awful way before my eyes, helplessly._

I screamed.

I bolted up, breathing hard as the cry ripped from my chest and lungs. I was hyperventilating, clutching my heart through the blanket to my chest as I stared forward wide eyed, covered in a cold sweat. I let out a sob, eyes watering and the door was thrown open and Kale burst into the room.

He took one look at me, tears threatening to spill and he was coming towards me instantly. "Shh, hey, what happened?" he murmured, sitting down next to me.

He reached for me and I flinched away, "don't touch me, God, don't, just don't," I let out a shaky breath, looking away as I rubbed at my face.

"What happened?" he asked, looking at me worriedly. He looked me up and down more closely and realization dawned on him, "you just had a night terror."

I squeezed my eyes shut, but when I saw Fynn's burning flesh in my mind, they snapped back open, filling with tears once more. "Hey," he turned me to face him, eyebrows furrowed in concern as he cupped my cheek. "What happened?"

"I tortured him," I whispered, remorse filling me. I let out a sob now, unable to stop the tears as they fell. "Oh god, I tortured him and he was probably innocent! I burned him alive!"

"Who did you burn? Fynn?" he asked, confused.

"No, the fey, I tortured him for what I thought he did to Fynn. He started the fire that burned Fynn, his hand burned me too, but Fynn shouldn't have caught fire. It was a set up and I tortured him. They hadn't meant for me to torture him, he was the fucking patsy!"

I burst into cursing, voice shaking as I struggled to rein in some control. "No, Mara, stop," Kale tilted my face back up to his, and his lips brushed against mine lightly, surprising me. I blinked up at him, Kale shook his head, looking into my eyes seriously. "What you did, anything you did, you were set up just as much as they were. You told us yourself your impulses are not easy to control and they would've known that better than anyone. Anything you did, any sins you may have committed, are theirs, not yours. Do you understand me?"

"No! I beat him a bloody pulp, I burned him alive, slowly. I did that, me, not them!"

"You were made to," he said sternly, he actually believed it wasn't my fault. He wasn't there, he didn't see what I'd done. "Mara, you were set up. Adam confirmed what I said. Aacheron could not have set that fire, burned him maybe, but he couldn't have set skin or clothing on fire. Not even a little bit."

I squeezed my eyes closed, swallowing the lump in my throat. Fynn had been murdered by Asher, probably even our entire team, maybe even the School? Why would they do that? Why didn't I know? Because you would've stopped them, a voice whispered in the back of mind, you would've saved him and burned the School down for trying to hurt him.

But what had he done that was so terrible? He was a more skilled fighter then Jared was most of the time. It was one of the reasons we'd been so close, Fynn had been so similar to me, I could share things with him I hadn't been able to share with the others. Those secrets had died with him. And his would die with me. Fynn had meant so much to me. He had been everything to me, my world. Now he was gone, and one way or another, I was probably to blame. I just knew it.

"Oh god," I moaned, about ready to burst into tears again. Kale pulled me into his arms, the sheet between us as he did so. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me on his lap and I fell into him, letting out the sob and moaned again, "Fynn, oh god, Fynn." The cries that followed, I didn't try to stop and Kale didn't either.

He held me to him as I sobbed into his shirt, letting out all of the pent emotion from his death. I hadn't cried at all, I hadn't cried since I'd watched him die and that morphed into rage that even The Kill hadn't quenched. And it was unwarranted. I cried for my brother and I cried for the fey and all of the others I'd murdered without sin.

I wasn't just a killer, I was a murder, I was evil.

I truly was a monster.

Eventually, after what felt like forever, the sobs quieted and the pain started to numb. Kale shifted us, laying me down and pulling me into his arms, my back to his chest as we laid together in the bed. I was hiccupping now, a little embarrassed, but not as much as I thought I would've been. He ran his hands down my arm lightly, causing goose bumps to rise over my skin as my eyelids became heavy. When I hiccupped a little heavier, his voice was in my ear, his lips sliding across it, "Shh. Sleep. I'll be here, we'll always be here. Sleep, Mara, just sleep."

My eyelids slid shut and they didn't open as I drifted off, comforted in the arms of one of my greatest enemies.


	9. I Dare You

When I woke up, I was still surprised with my surroundings. I was especially surprised with the strong arms still wrapped around my waist.

I blinked, looking down and blushing a little. Hadn't been so embarrassed about the break down last night, or sleeping naked next to a guy.

Boy, was I now.

"Don't be," Kale mumbled into my hair tiredly.

I blushed even harder.

"I said don't be," he said sounding much more awake and stern.

I bit my lip, pulling away and sliding out of the bed, pulling the sheet with me. I wrapped it around my body, I decided I did not feel comfortable talking about how vulnerable I'd been last night. I had totally fallen apart and I wanted to save whatever shred of dignity I had left for some other humiliating future break down.

Kale sat up, stretching and groaning as he saw the clock on the side of the table. "Don't you people sleep? Even First Blood's need at least six or seven hours."

"Not so much. Four usually," I glanced at the clock, "five, what six, hours I slept? Yeah, that's actually a lot for me."

He shrugged, sitting up and stretching as he slid from the bed, revealing the abs hiding beneath is shirt. I couldn't help the blush as he caught me checking him out.

At least one of us had slept mostly clothed.

"Nate brought your clothes in a while ago. Said they didn't find anything on the car or the stuff from our visit to that compound, they can't figure out how they intend to find you, but we know they have a way. Adam thinks if they have some other way, it'll be at least a couple weeks."

I went to the dressers, opening them. Indeed, they were here. Clothes filled them. My clothes. At least they'd brought some of everything. I kept the sheet around me as best as I could, awkwardly pulling clothes on. Hopping on one foot and nearly falling over when my foot got caught as I pulled on some pants. Kale was trying not to laugh as he watched from the bed.

I scowled at him, "glad I could be so amusing, bet you enjoyed the show last night too!"

His face dropped slowly, and then he was up and off the bed and in front of me in less than a heartbeat, even one pounding as fast as mine suddenly was. He stared me down, eyes darkening, "don't ever think we want to see you hurting, _ever_."

I stared up at him, stunned at the intensity of his words and gaze. I was speechless. A rare feat in itself.

His eyes lightened a little and as he searched my eyes for something, he seemed to be deciding something. Finally he spoke. "Mara," I could tell by the way he said my name, whatever he had decided to do or say was important to him. "We care about you," before he could speak I did, grinning up at him cheekily, "but let's just be friends?"

Damn, I didn't just say that. Based on the pissed off look on his face now, yes, I most certainly did say that. I really needed to learn to think, or at least get a better brain-to-mouth filter.

He scowled at me now, eyes darkening again, "Jesus, if you had just been a little older when we found you, a little more mature."

"Oh fuck you, Kale!"

Who the fuck was this guy to judge me?!

His gaze darkened even more, and he backed me up against the dresser, leaning his hands down on either side of me, boxing me in. He was growling now, I could barely hear it as my heart thundered in my chest. I was definitely not laughing now.

His voice was just as dark as his eyes and it sent a shiver down my spine as I breathed hard in response to it, "Don't take your presence or position here lightly. We each care about you, deeply. We would never see you harmed, in any way, emotionally or otherwise. The others heard you last night. Adam heard your sobs and destroyed his room as you cried, blaming himself. Nate couldn't listen to it anymore and left the house and didn't return for hours, and Kade spent the entire night hitting a punching bag every time you sobbed over your lost comrade. It tore me apart, I didn't think I could stay by your side without turning that place into a blood bath for you, after I swore to Adam years ago I would never kill another human," our noses were nearly touching, as he spoke he leaned in closer, "Never, _ever_ , think that we would enjoy seeing you in pain."

Shit, that had escalated quickly.

I was back to speechless. He actually sounded really pissed off himself. I had no words, which was quickly becoming a regular occurrence around these guys.

"Why would Adam blame himself for that? I just met you a few weeks ago," my voice shook a little as I spoke quietly. I didn't want him going off on me again, because it kind of scared me.

I think he realized he was affecting me that way, scaring me. Cause he suddenly backed off, stepping away and raking a hand through his hair as he turned away with a harsh growl.

I felt bad now, I had upset him and he'd upset me, because I couldn't shut up. I just, I couldn't help it, I was so out of my comfort zone and when I was freaked my first reaction was sarcasm and bad-jokes. I laughed in the face violence and death where I should be scared and screaming. And I was scared, _deeply_ , this is just how I responded.

I laughed in the face of their fury, not because I found their anger with me amusing, but because I didn't know what else to do. I didn't know how to handle myself, which also bothered me because I always understood how I felt. But with them, _all of them_ , I felt awkward, like the sixteen year old that I was, not the confident, shit-talking assassin that I was used to being.

I was her, the alter ego that I let control my life, but now, _now_ I was both. The inexperienced, lonely and remorseful sixteen year old that was terrified of being touched _and_ the cold-hearted, egotistical, unpredictable assassin, one of the best that the world would probably ever see. They didn't mix, and I didn't want them to. I realized I would have to choose, either the girl, or the killer. I knew who I wanted to be, I wanted to be the killer because she would survive this world. She wouldn't just survive this world. She would rule it and the thought held appeal. Crazy? Very. But if choosing her meant the uncertainty and fear would go away, I would let her take over, instantly.

Only the St. Delphi's had ever scared me and on so many levels too, it was too much. The intensity, the feelings that I had because of them, the way my body reacted to them. Just them being close sent me falling towards the edge to lost self-control. When they were looking at me so completely as if they saw me, the real me, that terrified me. Even just the lightest touch made me breathless and off-balance, making me freeze up inside.

They were supposed to make me feel violent, yet, they did the opposite. They made me feel weak and stripped and laid bare and I hated myself for it, and I hated it even more because they knew how they affected me. When their touch should release that red haze in me, there was none, there was just a deep desire that rocked me to my core. I wanted more of them, I craved more of them and I was starting to hate myself for it.

I seemed to be nothing more than the irritating sixteen year old girl they were stuck with. Why they wanted me around, why they kept coming so close to toeing the invisible line I drew between myself and the world, was beyond me. All I seemed to do was aggravate them and when they did respond similarly to me, they pushed and pushed until I let the auto-pilot take over and then I would end up making them mad.

It was a vicious circle.

I wasn't afraid that they might physically hurt me, I understood violence, I could throw punches all day long and I didn't care all that much if they hit me, cause I could hit back just as hard. But I also didn't want to fight with them, not really, sparring and training was one thing. Actually fighting with them, upsetting them and pushing their buttons and making them snap, not my intention and yet I kept doing it and I felt guilty when I saw that I was getting to them.

Did they feel at all the same way? Did I want them to? Did I want to keep feeling this way? Once I made the blood normal and they backed off, what would I feel then, would I kill them like I was supposed to? I didn't know what to do, what to think or feel and I felt more and more lost every day.

They were making me face things I wasn't ready to and change in a way that I wasn't sure was a good thing. I so was not ready for any of this, less so since Fynn's death. God, how I missed Fynn.

Kale had been watching me silently for a few minutes, as my thoughts swirled. If I didn't know any better I'd say he could read my mind. Whatever he saw, he knew I was upset and now he looked guilty. See? Can't even think in front of them without it having some kind of negative effect!

Fuck My Life.

What the hell was I even doing here? Why would they want me around? Why did they care at all, when I only seemed to cause discord everywhere I went? They should just let me leave.

I sighed, leaning back against the dresser, running a hand through my hair. This was not how I saw my morning going.

You know what. Maybe I was just over thinking everything. You know, for a moment, I could almost believe that. I was thinking too much though. For once.

Kale gave me a hesitant smile, "are you okay? I'm sorry, I came on a little strong, I didn't think about your situation."

"My situation?"

"You dislike being touched, we can tell," he lifted a shoulder, but he looked a little defeated. "I came on too strong and I freaked you out. I'm sorry, I just didn't think, we seem to do that a lot around you; act and speak without thinking, quite out of character for us."

"I'm sorry too. I shouldn't be such a bitch, I guess I don't think first much myself."

He gave me a small smile and when I returned it, he relaxed completely. "Come on, let's head downstairs. Nate thinks he's fucking Gordon Ramsey, he's probably turned the kitchen into a warzone for you by now."

"Why didn't you answer my question?" he frowned, "about Adam, why would Adam blame himself over how I broke down over Fynn. Wait, _who_?" I asked eyebrows furrowing, Gordon who?

I was glad that moment with him was over. Him boxing me in and telling me how deeply my pathetic sobbing had affected them all. With the furious pitch black eyes, that had been scary intense. I was definitely not looking for a repeat, note to self; don't joke about pain to Kale, not a comedic kind of guy. Too bad I was kind of a masochist.

Kale glanced at me, "don't you have cable at that place?"

I shrugged, "I was never really one for television," he grinned now, holding out his hand for me.

I bypassed it, just because I'd cried on his shoulder last night didn't mean I was about to cozy up to them all. He was still a stranger _and_ my damned kidnapper. I was not about to let down my guard, much more then I already had at least.

Jesus, how much more could I have given in? Sparring, drinking, crying on them. My god, where was all my training on kidnappings? I had some, didn't i? Most of it didn't account for this kind of imprisonment. It was pretty benign compared to what I'd been taught to expect and endure. Starvation, torture, that sort of thing I understood and was as prepared as I could be for that kind of treatment. This? Not so much.

He chuckled, grinning even wider as he followed me out of the room. I desperately wanted to forget how he'd mentioned they'd all heard me completely lose it last night, but I couldn't. Was it true what he'd said, about how they'd all reacted to hearing me? I couldn't be sure, but why would he lie about that?

Grain of salt, I kept telling myself that all the way to the kitchen.

I froze as we hit the entrance.

Food and dishes covered every counter. I stopped short in the entryway to the very large and many countered and cupboard-ed kitchen. All of the counters were covered in dishes and food. Every inch of the kitchen, a total and complete, mess. Nathaniel included.

My eyes had gone wide and my jaw had dropped, "oh, my, god," I muttered to myself.

Amid all this chaos was Nate, covered in flower and egg and other food and liquids I couldn't readily identify. "Told you so," Kale muttered to me, shaking his head as he went for the coffee machine. "Fuck, Nate, what god awful thing did you cook now? You better not give her food poisoning, cause Adam will kick your ass! Wait, _we'll_ kick your ass, and that's if she doesn't," he turned to me, dead serious, "don't eat any of it. Just trust me."

"The salmon thing was not my fault, I didn't know it had to be cleaned and cooked a certain way!" Nate said defensively, glaring at his brother. I smiled a little. This was kind of, normal. They almost made me see them more humanly, like actual human brothers razing one another. I had to remind myself they were a couple centuries old and had fangs and a body count.

Jesus, how old was Nate, and shouldn't he be able to cook by now?

My smile had been growing. Until, Adam came up behind me and don't ask how I knew it was him. Just did. Gave up trying to figure out how I knew these things, for now. Maybe it was his scent, it washed over me as I felt his chest against my back a little.

I turned slightly, and surprise filled me when he kissed my cheek and gave me a hesitant smile. I blushed, biting my lip a little, unsure how to react to that little display of affection. It didn't mean anything right? Lots of people kiss girls on the cheek, right? Just agree with me so I can keep whatever sanity I have left!

"Morning," he said loudly to the other two, moving into the kitchen. He growled now as he saw the state of the room before us. "Christ, Nate, _again_? You're cleaning this shit up," Adam said with a sigh.

I glanced down now, recalling what Kale had told me and saw that in addition to being all disheveled and tired, Adam's knuckles were cut and scabbed over.

I looked up, seeing Kale's raised eyebrows and pointed stare. I rolled my eyes, so he had been telling the truth, it didn't make me feel any better about the situation. They cared about me to some extent, I knew that already. They had never explained why. Apparently, it was a thing and I knew they weren't going to tell me, at least not any time soon. And if they weren't going to, I would find out for myself. They had twenty four hours to give me some real answers before I made my escape and got the truth myself.

Nate came up to me during my musings, taking my shoulders and pushing me towards the table. Adam and Kale joined me, Adam set a cup of coffee down in front of me. I glanced up, and he gazed at me intently. "You sleep alright?" he asked, almost quiet as he leaned back.

I glanced at Kale, shrugging and blushing a little. These guys must have superior senses to First Blood's, because most could not hear through an entire house, especially not one this big. So much for my original plan to kill them, never would've made it far if I had separated them in their manor in L.A., distracted or not.

I took a sip of the coffee, reaching for the milk and sugar in the center of the table and adding a little. I grinned as Kade entered the kitchen, who paused, took one look at Nate and simply shook his head at his other younger brother.

Remember how I mentioned I needed to learn to keep my shut?

"So how was everyone's night?" I asked sarcastically.

Kale threw me yet another dark look, "Mara, that is not funny and it's not cool."

I leaned back, throwing back at him, "where are we again?" Reminding them all, that technically, I was still very much a prisoner here.

"Do you want to leave?" Adam asked, and we all glanced over as the stove briefly caught fire and Nate jumped back with a curse.

All three of them rolled their eyes at Nate's singed shirt and mutterings. They turned back to me and Kade dropped into the seat across from me, Adam on my left and Kale on my right. I suddenly felt ambushed.

"Yes," I said seriously. "I'll go after Nate kills me with his cooking and just so you know, there are faster ways to accomplish that!"

"I'm not going to kill you," Nate said, throwing me a mock-outraged look.

I smiled a little, "correction, poison me, there were faster ways to poison me, and apparently, I already have been. So if that was your agenda, now that it's been confirmed, I'll take my leave."

The twins shared looks and Adam leaned forward towards me, arms crossing over the table as he stared at me evenly. He seethed, but his expression remained empty, "I dare you."

Bad idea. I froze for a moment, my expression dropped and smile faded.

I nearly jumped from my seat at the challenge and they all saw that. I bit my lip, twitching a little. God, I hated when people challenged me. Adam's eyes narrowed and he spoke, lethally. "You wouldn't make it a mile before we caught you."

Wrong thing to say and he noticed that a moment too late. My jaw clenched and my hands turned to fists under the table. My nails dug into my palms so hard I knew I would draw blood soon, I forced myself, hands trembling, to loosen up my fists.

Oh god, how I ached to test that theory now, too. "Don't even think about it," Kale warned coldly. I was, I very much was. I could even feel Nate's tense gaze on me, they were all watching me, seeing how ready I was to go bolting from this house just on principal.

They knew me pretty well if they realized how close I was to taking up the challenge. Kade spoke now, voice darker than theirs, enunciating each word harshly, "don't do it, Mara."

I bit my lip again. Adam's eyes narrowed on me even more and then I jumped about a foot off the chair as a plate came down in front of me, surprising the hell out of me. I looked up at Nate, who smirked at the table, "breakfast is ready!"

Adam and Kale's eyes widened in horror and Kade was simply, _gone_ , "uh, not really hungry, going on a run, eat later. Wouldn't want to cramp up," Kale chuckled awkwardly. He was up and gone, I think he actually was going on a run, probably thinking I might still take Adam up on that dare of his.

Adam glanced at me, both of us looking down at the plate, that was, _moving_.

"Mozel tov, it's a boy," I said in horror.

Nate scowled at me now, looking quite offended, "Hey!"

"You know, I tend to just eat bacon and oatmeal or cereal with my coffee," I said, turning a little green as I stared at the plate before me.

"There's bacon there, see?" Nate gestured to the left of the plate.

I saw no bacon whatsoever, nothing that looked even remotely like bacon. Or any breakfast food I had ever seen or even heard of. Whatever he had attempted was definitely going to kill me. Slowly and painfully.

I looked up at Adam for help, who hid a smile, "I don't think she should eat a heavy meal, Kale mentioned she was a bit out of sorts last night. She should probably just hydrate for now."

Coffee was not going to hydrate me…

A bit out of sorts? Out of alcohol, sorts? I wondered if that had attributed to my emotional break down, it must've. Yeah, now I didn't feel so confused, that must be it. I buried the voice that was screaming in the back of my head, ' _denial, anybody_?'

Nate paused, "right, I forgot," he took away whatever had birthed that plate and returned to the kitchen. He must've had an octopus and gorilla in there somewhere. Maybe a disgusting rotted dinosaur egg.

"Nate?" I called out, he glanced back as he set the plate down, "whose Gordon Ramsey?"

Nate's eyes lit up and Adam shook his head at me in disbelief, "good luck babe, can't save you this time."

 _Uh-oh_. That didn't sound good.

Nate came over, grabbing my hand and tugging me out of the chair. I grabbed onto my cup, I had a feeling I might need it, as Nate dragged me from the dining area to the media room.

Nate, who thoroughly ignored Adam as he shouted after us, "get back here and clean that shit up! Nathaniel, I am not cleaning this up! God damn it! Nate!"

Nate looked at me grinning, sideways, "thanks for the save. "

"You're welcome?"

"Now to educate you in fine dining."

I had a feeling this was not going to be fun, for _me_. Nate looked like Christmas had come early. I stemmed the urge to make up an excuse to bail. After how badly I'd upset everyone, I figured I owed him and he looked so excited. Kind of reminded me of a twelve year old that got a new puppy. So I shut up and sat down on the couch as he surfed the satellite recordings.

Nathaniel St. Delphi, who Delilah had once called Tom Cruise-Oprah famous at one point, made me, Mara, one of the greatest assassins ever, watch _Hell's Kitchen._ It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Gordon Ramsey reminded me of Carter so much it was kind of freaky, they could've been brothers. They looked almost exactly alike, and they both loved to yell.

I couldn't get his cursing shouts out of my head even an hour after I'd escaped that stupid room of literal hell. I'd made up some crap about being unable to sit still anymore, which was half true. After hearing the Carter look-a-like yell for four hours over fucking food of all things, I felt as though I had been the one reamed for not being good enough.

I found myself downstairs in the gym blaring music on the computer. It was some popular radio station. I'd listened to it occasionally. But, the School didn't let us train with music and we had to be completely alert out in the field, which was anywhere that the School wasn't, so that was out too.

I was enjoying this. I had never worked out with music before. I liked it, it gave me a bit of extra pep, especially during an upbeat song. I even found I really liked a couple mainstream songs.

One of them came to check on me while I beat up on the punching bag. But when I refused to acknowledge them, Kade I believe it was, left me be. I figured he was mostly making sure I hadn't bailed like they'd dared me to.

As I thought about Adam's voice and the way he'd spoken like I was incapable of besting them. It started to get to me again, badly. I wanted to go now, more than ever, just because Adam had challenged me that way, they all had. It was not wise to do that to someone like me. I didn't have a strong impulse control and they knew that. So why would they push my buttons like that?

I blew out a breath, sweating and shoulders aching from beating on the punching bag after so long. I kept hearing his voice, ' _I dare you'_. Ugh. I was not a child. Why did everyone keep treating me like one?

I threw my fist into the bag one more time before round house kicking the bag. It went flying back and off of the chain, falling several feet away.

I seethed, staring at it and hearing his voice echoing in my head. They were domesticating me, treating me like a pet.

I was not a pet!

I was not a piece of property!

As I looked up, seeing my sweaty and angry gaze in the floor to ceiling mirror a few feet away. I decided, I would not be treated be this way

I decided before the idea had even finished forming.

I wasn't waiting another twelve hours. They hadn't gotten me any answers, they were toying with me. I was gone. I was done with this.

I turned, pulling the gloves off and tugging on the sweater. I was already as dressed as I'd need to be.

I took a deep breath and chugged some water before grabbing a pool stick from the lounge in the next room.

As quietly as I could, I snapped it in half. I turned, going up the steps to the ground floor, making as normal footfalls as possible. Keeping my heart rate even, I stretched a little at the front door. I would need to move fast. Really fast.

I looked out the front door, seeing one of the vehicles hoods up, a red charger. I lifted up a vase, walking down the steps and then pulling on the creeper seat beneath it and yanking Kade out. I didn't give him a chance to react or speak before I brought the vase down on his temple hard. He was out instantly, I set down the vase silently and then climbed into the car.

I turned it on, and was leaving just as quickly as I'd made the decision. I was just leaving the pavement part of the driveway when the engine suddenly cut. I knew what it meant right away. The car had been shut down remotely somehow. They knew what I'd done, already.

I swore and then climbed out of the car and ran.

I didn't even glance back, just ran straight into the pitch dark woods, they would have to go on foot if I had to, too. It was nearly midnight, but I wasn't stopping until I found the interstate. I wasn't going to be stopped , not even when I was miles away. Fuck Adam, I could make it miles before they caught up to me and I would prove it even if they did eventually catch me.

I did not like to be fucked with and these guys played too many mind games. I didn't need anyone's help. I certainly didn't need any bossy possessive First Blood's trying to mind fuck me day in and day out. I was already out of sorts and I didn't need them making it worse.

This wasn't just taking up his challenge. I was about to do my fucking best to get out of here.

I was not a piece of a piece of property or a damn pet that could be told what to do! The School couldn't control me, and I wouldn't let these guys either, regardless of how they made me feel.

If they caught me, I didn't care who it was. I would kill them. They'd have to kill me to stop me from running!

Anger filled me again and as I ran I felt it.

They were following, the feeling of being chased after, like I was prey instead of predator. It hit home hard, causing me to stagger and fall in my shock, cutting open my right palm and getting scratched when I'd fallen through a thorn bush.

It was like that pulse all over again, ripping through me with an intense awareness. I couldn't hear them exactly, but I could feel it in my gut. They were chasing after me now.

I forced myself back up, gasping as I started running again. Fear was coursing through me more than anger now, because I could feel the fury coming from them. It was scaring me more than how their touch made me feel. I didn't know what would happen if they caught up to me, but I didn't want to find out either.

I narrowed my eyes and ran harder.

I made it three more miles before I felt them closing in and they were pushing faster the closer they got. Two of them. I didn't know who exactly, I was too focused on not tripping. I had been cut a couple times by brush and trees, I didn't care. I knew they had my trail, my blood wouldn't make a difference. Short of making them thirsty, assuming my tainted blood did at all.

Shit, I was already slowing down. This had been a bad idea after training for nearly eight hours yesterday and today and getting plastered last night.

Then I saw something, a car. I could see the headlights! The interstate. I had made it.

I laughed, a little breathlessly. I knew instantly as I felt deep down, it wasn't one of their vehicles, at least, it wasn't any of the coven inside.

I could feel two of them closing in on me, but they wouldn't make it before I reached the car, I knew that much.

I was there in less than five seconds, I staggered out into the road, waving my arms as I collapsed in pain and exhaustion now. They stomped on the brakes, screeching to a halt and nearly running me over, the smoking front bumper less than a foot from my face.

I stared wide eyed as I stood up shakily, breathing hard, at the man in the driver's side.

He got out, a late forties Caucasian man, balding and a little on the heavy side. "Are you alright, miss?"

"No, I need a ride, now," I snapped, going for the passenger seat.

"Wh-where did you come from? What's going on? Who are you?" he stuttered, looking around anxiously.

"Just let me in and drive!" the passenger side was locked.

He was taking too long, he was too far.

He got in, unlocking the car, still asking questions. I ignored them and climbed in, and then as the lights came on and the engine started. Adam stood there, eyes black as the high beams hit him.

"Ah, fuck," the door was ripped open and Kale ripped the man from the car. I scrambled over the seat for the driver's side as my door was literally ripped off its hinges, the sound of ear-splitting torn metal.

Adam ripped me out roughly and I gasped as I felt a deep piece of metal cut down my right thigh to my knee. I hit the ground with a pained cry, feeling the fast warm ooze of blood. It was a deep cut, I couldn't even run now, not without a limp.

I heard the man scream before I heard Kale speaking quietly. I couldn't hear what he said, I wasn't trying to. Adam turned me over, grabbing for my arms as I struck out blindly, my fear and panic making me incredibly sloppy at the sight of his rage.

I was suddenly terrified and I think it was because Adam was full dark, no stars raging. I managed to finally kick him off of me, scrambling up and around the truck. He was on me instantly, grabbing my arm, turning me and grabbing my throat hard and slamming me into the hood of the car. Which was very hot!

I gasped in pain, arching off of it as he gripped my throat tightly. I reached out as he squeezed, "you honestly thought we would let you go so easily? Don't you know anything about us? We aren't known for mercy or leniency, you're ours, Mara."

Oh god, I could hear the thinly veiled violence in his voice, and he was ready to let that loose on me. Still, I couldn't keep my stupid mouth shut, "I guess we have more in common than we thought!" I wheezed as his hand tightened and I squeezed my eyes shut, gripping his arm as my oxygen was ripped from my lungs.

I tried to breathe, but I couldn't. I couldn't breathe!

My eyes shot open and I could feel myself fading out and going weak, fast, especially after that work out and four mile sprint. And he didn't show any signs of letting up. I could hear shouting, but it was almost far away. Adam didn't seem to hear Kale and Nate shouting either. My panic was making it worse, I felt my eyes start to roll up and my arm fell as I slipped back into the hot car hood. Darkness swam around me, pulling me down, dragging me and I completely lost all strength.

Nate crashed into Adam now, throwing him off of me and I fell to the ground gasping for sweet beautiful, air. "You're crazy, you're fucking crazy!" I gasped, falling over as I groaned, neck aching.

Kale grabbed my arm, forcing me back up into a stand and a car pulled up as the human man stood there staring around blankly. Totally blank, geez, what the hell did Kale say to him?

Kade left the car, bleeding from the head and I grimaced at the sight. Guilt tore through me now. I actually felt bad for hurting him. He didn't look even fazed by the head wound, which kind of made me feel a smidgen better. He looked at Adam, frowning as he saw how murderous Adam was looking at me.

I glared back at him, "you started it, asshole!" I shouted.

I just couldn't just keep my mouth shut could I?

Adam shoved Nate off of him and he was on me again in a second, taking me to the ground and holding my arms down to each sides of my face. "When I tell you to do something, you fucking do it! This isn't a game, you stupid, immature child!"

Anger burned in me and I threw my head into his, pulling my arms free and shoving him off of me. I staggered up, crashing into him and throwing my fist in his face. "I'm not yours to command! I am not a piece of property, you're not my sire, you're not my brother and you are not my friend! Don't call me stupid or immature, you controlling jackass!"

I struck out again, and someone wrapped their arms around my waist, dragging me away as I kicked out at him. He was up and shoving Kade back away from me as he loomed over me. His nose and lip were bleeding and he didn't even seem to notice.

I could hear that same violence and dark promise when he spoke, "You want to know what makes you ours?"

"Adam, don't go there," Kale warned harshly.

"Back off of her, brother," Kade agreed, gripping his shoulder from behind him as Kale stayed at my side, hand around my arm.

I stared back at him Adam coldly, and he stared back just as angrily. I spoke, voice low, "I will never be yours. Don't see something that isn't there St. Delphi. I was sent to kill you, I was raised to kill Others, don't you dare try and act like we'd ever be on the same level, because were not. We certainly never will be if you keep me captive. Touch me, bloodsucker, and I'll slide a knife into your gut while you sleep."

Adam pulled out a butterfly blade, holding the hilt out towards me, "do it, then. Slide it right into my heart and kill me."

I didn't hesitate. I lifted the blade up, bringing it up and sliding it across his throat slightly and then straight through his ribs hard and fast before the other three yanked the blade from my hand. Adam had staggered back, breathing hard, bleeding now as he held my gaze. I'd missed his heart and main arteries on purpose and he knew that.

I glared at him hatefully and he smirked coldly, standing back upright. "You still can't do it. You will never be able to do it. That's what makes you ours, angel. You can kill anyone in this world," he stepped forward, staring down at me as our chests touched, voice heated, he continued. "But you could never really hurt us. It would kill you inside, it's hurts you just to try."

"Keep pushing me, asshole, it'll hurt less and less," I sneered, shoving him away. God, how I wanted to kill him. Please, give me back that blade, I'll have another go at it!

Nate grabbed my arm, pulling me back a step. "Let's go back. I can hear another vehicle coming," he said hesitantly.

He glanced at everyone, looking weary. Everyone aside from Nate was pissed, the twins and Adam had pitch black eyes as they stared at me and I was glaring back at Adam. I pulled my arm from Nate's grip, "don't fucking touch me."

I would prefer being starved in a cell to the mind games. At least torture was something I understood. I was sixteen. I didn't understand this shit.

I pushed passed them and climbed into the back of the stupid vehicle that Kade had been working on. My leg was bleeding pretty bad, I wouldn't make it far if I ran now. It had taken everything in me just to hide the limp to the car, and it burned now. It hurt twice as much just to save that previously mentioned last shred of dignity that I clung to.

I growled under my breath, glaring out the window as they all argued outside of the car. Kale had gotten into the backseat with me, making me push into the middle. I could see Adam and the other two arguing, heatedly. Nate's arms were flying around as he shouted, too muffled and far away for me to hear. Adam was shouting back, and Kade had even shoved him at one point. Whatever was going on, Kade and Nate were ganging up on Adam. Who looked like he was about to burst.

I was right, less than a minute later, Adam had struck out Nate. Adam was then shoved by Kade. Seeing them all fighting, actually fighting, filled me with even more guilt and twice as much unease. Apparently, I didn't like seeing them fighting amongst themselves either.

Kale glanced at me, "you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay! I'd be okay if you had just let me go!"

As if hearing me, they all turned to stare into the car and I swore under my breath, shouting out loud with a scratchy voice, "can we fucking go now? I'd rather not have a car plow into us at a hundred kilometers an hour after all that bullshit!"

Adam looked like he was two seconds from going another round with me too. Nate shoved him at the car gently, saying something quietly. Adam relaxed, a little, and walked, well, more like _stalked_ , towards the car.

He climbed in next to me.

I snorted, that just figures.

Nate climbed into the driver's seat and Kade took the front seat and to say shit was tense and awkward was an understatement.

We pulled away and we passed the car and it's owner, the still blank faced man, I couldn't help it, my eyebrows went up and I chuckled, grinning now.

Everyone turned to me in disbelief. Adam blurted out, "what about any of this is amusing to you?"

I laughed a little now, though it was kind of hoarse, "that guy," I turned to Kale, grinning widely, my voice kept breaking but I continued, "what did you say to him? Did you see his face? It was like we weren't even there that whole time!"

They all shared looks, smiling a little, except for the grumpy psycho that was Adam. The tension had eased but Adam was now glaring at me. "You have a rude awakening coming for you if you honestly think we're going to let you get away with what you just did."

"Oh, did you not find my 'we'll meet again someday', 'goodbye', letter?" I shot at him sarcastically.

"What did you think would happen? That we wouldn't search for you, that we'd just let you disappear into the world not knowing if you were even healthy and safe? That we would let you go back to the place that treated you worse than we have?"

"A girl can hope," I muttered to myself, rolling my eyes. I threw at him, ignoring his ever-growing glare. "You know what Adam? I hadn't even planned on going back, at least not right away and not to stay."

He paused, confused, "where were you going then?"

"Away!"

"Why?" the twins asked me, bewildered.

I stared at them as if they'd all grown two heads. "Jesus Christ, did you actually just ask me that? You told me I'm a prisoner!"

"Have we mistreated or hurt you?" Nate asked me, glancing at me in the rear view mirror.

"Yes!" Mind fucking me all the time was the same thing.

"Other than biting you, the sparring, have we hurt you?" Kale countered.

"Yes!" Mind fucking still counts!

"How?" Adam asked me, "quite frankly, we could be doing much worse things to you after the way you behaved," like a pet or child needing punishment, oh this guy was just asking for an ass-kicking!

"We could've done any number of things and you wouldn't be able to stop us. Putting you in a cell, guarding you all the time for stunts like this, feeding on you, torturing you for actual answers, fucking you. You couldn't really stop us and you know it."

What the fuck? My eyes went wide and I tensed, as everyone glared at Adam now. He ignored them, leveling me with a stare, "You tried to kill us, we may have searched you out with your death being a consideration, but after the connection formed when I bit you, we couldn't do that anymore then you could."

Dropping the 'fucking you' thing for now, I frowned. As something else occurred to me, I turned to stare at him, "so you're saying, if you hadn't bit me, I would be able to kill you?"

If that was true, that means this wasn't natural and it could be reversed. I could back to the way I used to be!

Everyone turned to Adam now, who paused, thinking, "I'm not sure. The connection wasn't there until that moment. It could've been anything, the bite, the actual intimacy or the touch itself. It could've formed over time like it should've, but one way or another it would've appeared. Possibly even while we killed you a more impersonal way, it might've hit us all."

I chewed on my lip thinking. "What is that?"

"What?" Adam asked, frowning at me as I continued biting on my lip. I realized his eyes were darkening again as he watched me, eventually he snapped, "stop that, you're going to drive me nuts! Do you do this stuff on purpose?"

I ignored that too for now, "what _exactly_ happened when you bit me?"

I glanced at everyone as their expressions closed off and they all looked away. I turned back to Adam. If he didn't answer me honestly, I was going to leave again. I would blow up the house first too. Adam saw that, or some of it, in my eyes.

"We'll talk at the house."

I wanted to deck him.

I was going to deck him!

My fists clenched.

"Don't," Kale said quietly, turning me and making me sit back as he pulled my seat belt on. Pleadingly he said it again, "Just, _don't_."

I guess I wasn't the only one not enjoying the inner fighting and turmoil.

When we got to the house, I climbed out on Kale's side and he reached for my arm when I hissed as pain shot through my leg. "Come here," Kade lifted me up suddenly and I hissed in more pain, head falling back as I bit my lip hard.

Kade carried me into the house, up to my room where Adam entered after us. He set me on the couch as gently as he could, hesitating and getting the first aid kit out of the walk-in closet. Adam took it from him and they held each other's gaze in some macho stand off and I rolled my eyes, struggling to slide my pants off. I tried to grab the box out of Adam's hands but he tugged it out of reach and nodded for Kade to leave.

Kade glanced at me, I assured him, "it's fine, plenty of weapons close by if I decide to take him up on that permission he gave me to end him."

Kade gave Adam a dark look, "call if you need us. We won't tolerate anyone hurting you."

Adam spoke sarcastically, who knew he had it in him? "Oh, so just she can?"

"Yes, she's human you moron, you could kill her."

"He tried to," I said, rubbing my very sore neck. My voice was still hoarse, he'd choked me that hard.

Adam threw me a look, I turned to Kade, "really, I'm fine."

He looked me over, sighing heavily, but left anyway. He really hadn't wanted to leave me alone with Adam.

Adam sat across from me, helping me shimmy the shorts off and I moaned in pain as the cut burned and more blood slid down my leg. "They don't want to leave you alone with me because I've never lost control before, not like that," Adam said quietly, as he began working on cleaning up the wounds. I gritted my teeth when he poured alcohol over the cuts, leg shaking as it stung, bad.

"Really?" I gasped out, breathing hard and gripping the end of the couch as he started dabbing around with an ointment. Thankfully, that actually felt kind of good.

"Yeah. Never once have I gotten so out of hand. It concerned them, especially since it was you I took it out on."

I smiled shakily, "wasn't it me that caused it?"

He shook his head, "not really, no. I warned them all to be ready when we went to remove you from that facility. I told them you would try to run at least once, and yet I was the one that lost it when you did. I always prided myself on self-control, even from my first days as an immortal, I had a deep sense of personal understanding. But, every time you step in the room, every time I lay eyes on you, breath in that overwhelming scent you carry, I find myself trying to hold onto my control as if I were reaching at mist."

I looked at him, and he glanced up, giving me a small apologetic smile. "When it hit me, that you'd actually run, you probably didn't hear me."

Ah, his lion-roar. "That bad, eh?"

"Worse," he grimaced. "Never have I felt so at a loss at how to handle myself. You just, throw me off guard all the time. Everything you say, you do, it pushes me further and further away from my grip on my emotions. I feel things so intensely now, things I've never even felt before, not even when I was a human. You make me feel things so out of my control that I don't know how to handle or react half the time."

I looked away, that all sounded very familiar. Pain sliced through me, though it was in my heart this time and I didn't know why.

He got out the thread and needle. "No, stitches will just need to be removed in a few hours. It'll heal fast, no head wound or bite to mess with or slow it down," I said a little teasingly. He relaxed, nodding and putting them away.

He got out some medical tape, speaking again. "I'm sorry. None of us were ready for what it would be like to have you here with us. We knew it would be intense, difficult, challenging, but we still weren't ready. I don't think any of us are behaving as we usually would. We've lived hundreds of lives, knowing what to expect, never being surprised and yet, we've never once encountered someone who triggered such deep emotion and urges the way you do. They're intense and consuming and we weren't ready. I don't think we ever would've been."

I stared at him, unease building in me and I swallowed hard, blurting out, "I'm sixteen!"

I wasn't ready for any of this. Whatever any of this was. I didn't want to think about what he was really trying to say.

No. I wouldn't go there.

Not now.

Not like this.

Maybe not ever.

Adam nodded, giving me a small smile. "I know. We know. We're trying to leave you be, as much as we can. It's hard, knowing your close again and not being able to touch you or be close to you. You didn't even like to be touched by humans or by your own. You have no experience with any kind of relationship, even remotely deep, do you?"

I blushed bright red, and he gave me a crooked grin, "it's okay. Nothing wrong with that. Don't be embarrassed, not about that. Were trying here Mara, but, you can't take off like that. For a number of reasons, most of which you know."

"I know," I admitted quietly.

"So why the hell did you?"

"You pissed me off," I said simply.

His eyes widened in disbelief, "that's _it_? That's the only reason you had for running potentially into the hands of your enemies."

He was still an enemy, to me anyway. I didn't say that though, just stared at him evenly, "this is the last time I'm going to say this Adam, I'm not a piece of property. I am not a pet. And if you treat me that way, if you force me to stay here, I will react and you won't like what happens when I do. No one ever does."

He searched me, eyes going right through me, like he saw into me, my mind and I swallowed hard again. "Alright Mara. Let's compromise. Give us a week, don't run again and if we don't have answers for you. We'll do whatever you want to do," as I opened my mouth he spoke again, "together."

I sighed, but relented, "deal."

He relaxed even more, blowing out a breath. "You have me more edgy then the human and Council peace signing."

I grinned, "just keeping you on your toes, St. Delphi."

He gave me a small smile, "going to keep calling me by my last name? I don't have the same privilege, you don't have one."

I shrugged lazily now, I was exhausted after that work out, the run and the fight. "I'm sure I have one. Gotta find out what it is first."

He set a bandage over the leg wound, before standing and holding out his hand. "Come on, you're tired," I accepted it, a little hesitantly and he helped me up.

He lifted me up and I made a surprised sound when I suddenly found myself laying on my back on the bed, blanket covering the half of my body without the potential to soak it in blood. Adam turned off the light, and then dropped down next to me on the bed.

I turned to him, confused, "what are you doing?"

"Sleeping," he said as he kicked off his jeans and socks and shoes. He closed his eyes.

I stared at him, he opened them suddenly, looking at me, eyebrows raised, "is there a problem?"

"You have-," I recalled what Kale said this morning. That Adam had destroyed his room as I cried, _because_ I cried. "No, I suppose not."

"Good," I kept staring at him and he stared back. He seemed to be debating something again. "You've had nightmares since you got here. Did you always have nightmares? Last night was different, not just a nightmare, but a night terror, you were screaming. Have you had those before?"

I looked up at the blank whiteness above us, suddenly missing my bedroom ceiling. "I don't know if you saw it, but I had this painting on my ceiling at the school. If I stared at it long enough before I fell asleep, I wouldn't have any nightmares."

"Come here," Adam wrapped an arm around my waist, tugging me towards him and laying his arm around my stomach, his chin on my head now.

I smiled a little, relaxing even though I knew I shouldn't. I just, liked having his arms around me.

Only this time I couldn't blame my lost resistance on the alcohol.

"Won't have nightmares now," Adam murmured, kissing the top of my head and I turned slightly, slowly, to keep from pulling the cut on my leg.

"Promise?" I whispered, closing my eyes as he pressed against me more firmly now that he knew I wouldn't push him away. His embrace almost felt protective.

"I promise," he said, voice low.

He really believed that. I hoped he was right.

Could they keep my demons away? Even if they were evil themselves? Even when I couldn't chase those monsters away on my own, could they?

Should I let them try, when I shouldn't even be here in the first place?

Could the St. Delphi's save me after all?

Or would they end up being my demise?


	10. We Are Forever

When I woke up, Adam was gone.

I was actually kind of glad. I stared up at the blank ceiling, kind of wishing I had my old ceiling back. I was going to get so bored here. I already was.

"There's something you need to see," Kale said. His brother and Nate walked into the room, and they went to the mini living room at the other side of the room. Kale lifted up the remote, turning on the television.

"Adam wants you to watch this," Nate said warily, he came around the bed towards me.

I sat up, wincing as my leg stung. Another day and the cut would be scarred, but for today it hurt like hell. Nate helped me up, leading me to the couches and we all sat down as Kale turned on the news.

It was a press conference of some kind. "This has been playing all morning, and it doesn't look it'll be letting up any time soon."

My picture, it was in the corner of the television. An actual picture of me, I don't remember having any pictures taken. It almost like an actual school photo. With the background, the ones you can order and would be on your school ID card. On the other end, a strip said, 'teen guest of Supernatural celebration still missing. St. Delphi's keeping low profile'.

"Ah, shit," I said leaning back with a groan, shaking my head a little.

Then a reporter stood in front of a house I had literally never seen before in my life. A couple, two very familiar people, stood in front of the two story house. "Mara Tarrin, age sixteen, was reported missing shortly after the celebration at the St. Delphi's home. She was seen being led out by several men who are still unidentified. Adam, the head of the coven and home out of Los Angelos told press earlier this month that the young girl was simply a guest and that he had never formerly met the young teen and that she was not the cause of the accident. The last time anyone had seen Mara Tarrin, she was being forced into a black escalade that left the manor after the fire that ended the celebration. Her parents, Richard and Mary Tarrin," a picture of the three of us, a fake picture flashed across the screen.

I rolled my eyes as the picture disappeared and it panned back and then closer to the house and the two people. Both of them worked at the School, they were looking rather distraught, 'Mary' was fake crying. "Richard Tarrin is a doctor at Gregory Memorial Hospital, mother Mary is a kindergarten teacher at their school nearby. Her parents are asking the public to come forward with any information on their daughter. If anyone sees the girl or the escalade they are asked to contact their local authorities, but not to try and make contact as her kidnappers are to be assumed armed and very dangerous."

Then it panned into the couple even more and 'Mary' aka Karen, spoke, sounding all sad, "please, if anyone sees my baby, help us. We love our Mara and we just want her to come home. We just want to know she's safe. Please, Mara is a good girl," I grinned at that. "She loves to read and she wanted to help people and she paints. Please, let her go. Adam, I am begging you, if you know anything, if your coven knows anything, help us. She was at your home last, someone must've seen something. I don't even know what she was doing there. She's only sixteen! Adam, please, tell us if you know anything."

Karen broke down crying and Richard, aka, Derek, wrapped his arms around her. Kale muted the television and we all sat quietly for a moment. "Karen's a good actor, gotta give her that," I said amused.

"You aren't concerned about this? This is a problem, all four of us are wanted for questioning and your School did that somehow. That means government officials are involved in this to some extent. What I want to know is who and how many," Nate said, turning to me.

"Where is Adam?" I asked, you'd think he'd be here to grill me for information.

"Handling this!" Nate, throwing me a scowl, "this is a problem, Mara! I didn't know your military school had these kinds of resources!"

"Adam wont be back for a few days, he's gone to speak to the Council and to set up a press conference with the humans for tomorrow. He's back home in L.A.," Kade explained, glancing at the television for a moment. It was re-playing the news reel again.

"We are screwed if anyone saw us coming here, we already look suspicious keeping such a low profile. Now that you've 'mysteriously' gone missing. I've looked online, your face is all over social media, and about eighty percent of the population thinks we're involved. They think we had you killed for setting fire to the manor," Kale said closing his eyes and raking a hand through his hair, messing it up a little I kind of wanted to play with his hair myself now.

I crossed my arms, leaning forward. "Well, I have an idea, but I don't think you're going to like it."

They shared looks. "This chick is going to get us all thrown into Guantanamo Bay," Kade muttered, him and his brother stared at one another.

Nate had calmed down and he titled his head at me curiously, "what's your idea?"

"Well, I'm missing because no one knows where I am. What if I wasn't missing anymore?"

"You want to be seen," Nate summed up.

"No, Adam said he would handle this, we need to let him do his job. He's a politician, Mara, this is what he does. You might make this worse for us if whatever you're planning goes south," Kade said, throwing me a stern look to back off.

But who would I be if I let them leash me? No one. I didn't play by anyone's rules. This was my fault, I handled my problems and I would handle this too.

"Not if you're all wanted for questioning," I pointed out. "Even if he does go on record saying he knows nothing, he's still going to go back under the radar and you three will still be wanted and I will still be missing. What if someone sees all of us, at the same time, in public," I shrugged, "problem solved. People will just assume I ran away from home. Then I'll be wanted for being an underage runaway, but you guys will be off the hook, and besides, no one will care about some random runaway."

They had thoughtful looks on their faces. "What exactly did you have in mind?"

"Where did they say I was from?"

Nate answered, "L.A. same place where we lived. It would've been too hard for them to explain why you were in the city if you weren't even from there."

"Well, let's start there. Don't you have a movie premiere coming up?" I asked Nate.

"How do you know that? I thought you didn't watch tv," Kale pointed out, eyebrows raised.

"Radio. It said that your movie was premiering tomorrow," I said shrugging.

"I don't think we should take her anywhere. She tried to run last night. Are we all forgetting that? She almost succeeded too," Kade said rolling his eyes. I threw him a dirty look, I hated when people talked like I wasn't there.

"Adam and I made a deal. You guys got one week to find me answers and I'm gone. Can't do shit for me if you can't even contact anyone without having human police all over you. I'm trying to help me more then I'm trying to help you," I said stiffly.

We sat tensely for a moment, all of them staring back at me and I stared back at Kade. If I got Kade on board, I had a feeling the other two would follow.

Kade sighed and I knew I'd won. "What's your plan?"

"For starters we need an internet link that can't be traced back to you along with a dummy account. Nate will go to his premiere and Kale and you will go turn yourselves in, all of which will be around the same time."

"Where will you be? You want to go along don't you? You want us to give you the chance to escape?" Kade shot at me.

I exploded, jumping up and glaring at him as I shouted, "I am not your prisoner! And I fucking refuse to be treated that way! I told Adam I would stay with you for a week, willingly, so long as you produced some answers. I intend to keep my word."

Kade levelled me with a hard stare again, but he said nothing.

"Alright, Mara, calm down," Nate took my hand, tugging me back down.

"Nate goes to his premiere, and we go into the station for questioning. I will contact Adam when we reach the police station and tell him to meet us there so he's in public as well. But where will you be?" Kale asked me cautiously.

"I will be at the pier. Well lit, lots of people. I bet there will be a ton of teenagers there too, at that time. Shouldn't be hard to be noticed, everyone is attached to their phones and social media sites. I give it less than twenty minutes before I'm recognized."

They shared looks again. "And what happens if the police nab you first, or the School?"

"What are the chances that the School will be at the pier in L.A.?" I scoffed, "if anything, all of the teams will be back at the compound or watching your properties, they probably think I'd be locked up in the basement the way Carter is. The last thing they will expect is to find images of me in a crowded place alone and unharmed."

I even planned to be a little drunk and make some human friends, but I didn't add that.

"I don't like this plan. If something goes wrong, we can't protect you, we wont even be close by. You can't fight right now, you can't even run," Kade said worriedly.

"My leg will be fine by tomorrow night. I can't run now, but tomorrow, by six-ish. I'll be fine. I have a good feeling about this." Which was a first as of late, I haven't had a good feeling in a while.

"Adam is going to murder us."

That I actually did agree with.

"Don't tell him. He'll just stop us. This is the best way to get the spot light off of you, if you can't even leave here, it's a goddamn problem because I will get further from the truth. I promised Adam I would be a good little hostage for seven days. That's all you get, so make it worth it."

Kade sighed, shaking his head and muttering a swift curse. "Alright. We'll drive down tonight. There's a safe house we can use close to the pier. Once everything takes place, we'll inform Adam of what's happening," he turned to me. "You need to be findable, easy to contact in case someone, even the Council guard, arrests you. Don't forget they want you too and once they have you, you'll disappear, for good. So avoid Other's."

Nate added his own stipulation, one that had me frowning as a weird sensation ran through me, a weird almost déjà vu feeling. "And another thing. You'll have a mic on you at all times. I will need to be able to speak to you and I will be watching social media for you. "

Kade spoke again, "We'll keep an eye on what's being said in the police station. But if were being interrogated, we wont be able to warn you, we'll be a step behind them if they go after you. Only Nate will be able to get to you if something happens, the theatre and the pier aren't close to one another, but we'll get you a vehicle and we'll find some place safe and several rendezvous points for you to wait for us if something goes wrong."

Kale looked at me, a dead serious look on his face. "Mara, I'm sorry, babe, but I have to ask. Are you going to play nice?"

I don't know about nice, but I definitely wanted to have some fun and I had a feeling this would be.

I felt like I was in a fucking mission impossible movie.

I grinned and just asked, "tell me someone made some coffee."

After breakfast, to which I politely refused Nate's dreadful cooking, I went back up to the room I was in to shower. The shower, which was painful, took way too long with the stupid cut down my leg.

When I came out, Nate was watching television. He glanced at me, "there's a duffel bag there. Figured we could just share a bag, we'll only be gone the night. Assuming everything goes to plan."

There was indeed a bag on the bed, which was also folded.

I sat down, with a slight grimace, tightening the towel around my body. "Who made the bed?"

He turned the television off, "I did. Adam was pretty pissed about the kitchen I didn't clean yesterday. Can't have anyone see you here so we have no help with upkeep for now and Adam has officially put me on house cleaning duty until he returns."

I smiled a little, recalling how Adam had shouted after us as Nate dragged me off to the media room. Then I frowned. Does that mean I might end up with chores?

"Can I see Carter before we go?" I hadn't spoken to him since our original visit that first day.

Nate shook his head, "no," he said firmly. "Adam made it clear he doesn't want you anywhere near him until he gets back, especially with the leg wound. You can see him once you're healed and Adam returns."

"Is Kade mad, that were doing this?" I asked him as I made my way to the dresser and pulling out some clothes.

"No, he's worried, not mad. You freaked us all out, when you took off, Adam more than the rest of us."

I couldn't wear shorts or pants, not with the stupid cut, but I did have a dress in here. It was a simple white spaghetti strap, summer dress.

Nate was on the other side of the room looking out the window so I quickly pulled on the bra and panties and then the dress.

When I glanced back, he was leaning against the window frame watching me.

I rolled my eyes and he grinned at me crookedly, coming towards me and holding out a hand for me. I accepted it and he turned me, "let me," he said lowly.

I bit my lip, fidgeting a little. His knuckles slid down my spine and I took in a shaky breath, turning my head slightly. I bit down on my lip even harder as he slid the zipper up, he pulled my hair back and I took a step forward and away from him as I turned back around.

His eyes were a little darker, and he had that intense look on his face, like he was undressing me mentally. I blushed, hard. "Um, so what time are we leaving?" I blurted out.

He didn't answer at first, but when he did, his voice was hoarse. "Kade said we should wait until at least four. It'll be dark by the time we make it to the city."

I gave him a shaky nod, "good. Has anyone spoken to Adam?"

His eyes narrowed on me some, "not yet. He said he would call to check in around ten. He said he was seeing the Council first. He'll let us know what they say when he calls."

"Why does he have to talk to the Council first?"

"The Council has their own resources within the human government, informants and the like. We might be able to find out who was in charge of the press reel about you. Find out who set that up and maybe we can find out from there who you're working for. Whoever is in charge of that place, they'll know what happened to you."

Okay that made sense. I figured as much. "Does Adam need permission to speak to the human authorities?"

I went back to the dresser, grabbing a change of clothes for tomorrow. Nate spoke as I folded them up tighter and put them in the bag.

"Not in the way you're thinking. Adam and I, we both have so much influence in the world. If the humans think any of us are linked to your disappearance, with so many people watching us all the time, there could be back lash on the supernatural world. People like us, were the face of our clans. Humans see the way we behave and assume that all of our kind are the same way. They start thinking were kidnapping or killing teenage girls, and it could shatter the very fragile peace between my kind and yours."

"So he went to them for advice?"

"No," I heard the uneasy tone of his voice and I turned to him. He was tense now and he gave me an even look. "He went to them to inform them of his movement, so that if anything happens to any of us, they know where to look."

It hit me. This was about more than the press reel, this was about the consequences of all of this negative attention. "You think the humans might attack you. That's why Kade was so against this plan. The humans might attack you, and the First Blood's might attack me."

"If it were just us, it wouldn't matter. But, we have you to consider, to protect," Nate came up to me, brushing the hair behind my ear, giving me a small smile. "We have you now, we can't lose you and this is a big risk all of us are taking. A lot could go wrong. We'd never forgive ourselves if you got hurt because of us."

"Not really your fault we have to do this in the first place though is it?" I said guiltily. This was all my fault. All of it. Adam might lose the chance at having a Council seat. Nate might not be able to make movies if people think he's dangerous. The entire coven, maybe even all of the First Blood's, might have the world turn on them because of me. I totally blew the entire assignment, my face all over the news coming off of Adam's property as his house went up in flames and then going 'missing'. And they would suffer the consequences because of the School and I.

"Hey," Nate's hands gripped my hips and I tensed a little, and then even me as he pulled me towards him, his hands interlocked and holding me to him. "Everything that has happened, your blood, Carter, the Other's that were eliminated. You may have been the smoking gun, the catalyst, but it's not your fault."

I stared up at him mutely. "You don't believe me, do you?" he said quietly, kissing my forehead and pressed his to mine as he sighed. He pulled me to him even tighter, so that our bodies were pressed together. "None of this is your fault, babe. And you know what? We'll deal, we've been preparing for something like this, you're unexpected, but, we'll deal. It'll be okay."

And suddenly, I remembered something. Last night, when I asked Adam what had happened when he bit me, what this was between all of us, he said he would tell me. He didn't, he distracted me and never told me anything.

I pulled away, pushing off of him and backing up. "Why am I here?"

His jaw clenched as he stared back at me, a wall slamming down in him and a rip slowly began separating us. "Nathaniel," I said coldly, "why am I here?"

I saw his fists clenched and my eyes narrowed. "You aren't going to tell me. Who am I to you people? I-I don't even know you. I don't know any of you. I tried to kill you, you were going to kill me, so-," he cut me off.

His voice was harsh, "we weren't going to kill you!"

"Well you thought about it!" I shouted now, glaring. "Why am I here? What do you want from me? Because if this is some kind of sick game, you picked the wrong girl!"

He glared back now. "You know why you're here. We need to know what is going on with you and you aren't safe."

"You know that's not what I'm talking about! Why did you come looking for me after the celebration? Why did you take me from my home-," he cut me off, yelling at me as he jerked a step forward, "-that was not your home!"

"What do you think is going to happen here, Nate? Do you expect me to stick around after this week is up? Because sorry to disappoint, I wont. I'm a hunter. That's all I am and it's all I will ever be. Even if the targets I had weren't evil. I'll keep hunting the ones that are and I wont keep associating with you guys, I wont write, or email or call. If you can't find answers, I'm gone."

"We'll find you," he promised coldly, eyes black now. He was pissed. "If you leave. We will stop you. If you do succeed. We will find you, we wouldn't rest until we did."

"Then I'll kill you!"

"You can't kill us anymore then we could kill you!"

"What the fuck do you want with me? Why am I here?!" I screamed at him, breathing hard.

"You know why, were connected, you can feel it," Nate said with a low threatening growl.

"That doesn't mean shit to me! Who cares, everyone out there eventually meets someone that makes them feel! Your vampires and I'm a hunter! That isn't enough to make me want to stick around, it means nothing to me, it's physical, it means nothing!"

"Well it means everything to us," he snapped.

"Why!" I shouted. I kept shouting, I don't think it made my frustration any clearer and I doubt it was helping, but it made me feel a little better.

We stared at one another, and then slowly, he backed out of the room, slamming the door on his way out.

I let out a low growl, turning and throwing everything off of the dresser. I held myself against it, burning in anger and confusion. I was so frustrated. I got it, there was something between all of us. A connection, but it didn't mean anything, not really. It was just physical. There had to be a logical explanation for the way they made me feel and the way they didn't make me feel. There had to be a way to turn it off.

I would find out sooner or later. And if that stupid way they made me feel was the only reason they wanted me around, if they felt the same way, it didn't matter. They were vampires. I was a hunter.

I didn't like being weak and that was how they made me feel, weak and out of depth. I didn't like feeing breathless and jello-legged every time they came around me. It didn't even seem to get better, just more intense.

I was sixteen. They may have just been early twenties, physically, but they were centuries older than me. I wasn't a toy and I wasn't a piece of meat. I wouldn't play this game with them. Especially since all I seemed to do was cause problems for them and I hated that.

I mean, I hit Kade over the head and knocked him out! I kept bruising up Nate's face in a fight, Adam was probably in more trouble with the Council then he let on and I knew Kale hated all of the inner turmoil.

Someone knocked on the door, I glared at it, lifted a fallen piece of glass and whipped it at the closed entrance. It shattered, glass exploding everywhere.

I heard an irritated sigh and then whoever was there, left.

Good, they wouldn't lose any body parts.

I didn't care if we were connected. We were mortal enemies and we would stay that way, forever. That would never change and it really bugged me.

When Kale came to get me at quarter to three, he didn't say much, just, "time to head out. You good?"

I gave him a stiff nod. "Let's just go."

The car ride was quiet, and kind of awkward, so I leaned between the front seats and turned the radio up. I looked out the window most of the way. Turns out we were outside of Santa Maria. Not very far from L.A but far enough. The area they lived in at the beach house, it was incredibly secluded. I hardly saw any driveways or gates, and I recalled one of them saying they owned most of property around this spot.

I must've been fidgeting because Kale's hand wrapped around mine and I looked over at him. He looked concerned, but he didn't say anything. He tugged my hand away from my lap, intertwining ours together and gave me a smile.

I returned it, before looking back out the window and watching the trees fly by.

Someone was carrying me, that was how I woke up. I blinked tiredly, surprised to find we had arrived at the safe house. Kale was carrying me into the house, and Nate was turning lights on, Kade was carrying several bags in from the driveway.

"First things first, no one leaves until tomorrow night," Kade said, dropping the bags down in the foyer. Kale set me down on the couch, kissing my cheek before turning to his twin. "And we should keep the blinds and curtains closed, lights off. We don't need anyone spotting us, especially since all four of us are together. The last thing we need is to have this whole idea blow up before we've even put the plan into action."

Nate was in the kitchen area, at the back of the house, when he spoke up, "that is going to be a problem brother. There is no food and Mara hasn't eaten once today."

They all turned to stare at me in disbelief, Kale looked confused now, "I've hardly seen you eat, actually, I haven't seen you eat once, why is that?"

I shrugged, "I eat when I'm hungry. I'm not hungry."

"We could order something, but well, it's a little tricky because none of us can be seen," Kale said to Kade.

"Oh, I vote pizza!" Nate said, coming and sitting next to me on the couch.

"I'm game for pizza," I said looking up at Kade hopefully.

He sighed, "fine. Pizza," he glanced at me, smirking now, "the last time we ordered pizza it ended in a fist fight because none of them could agree on what to order. Nate got locked in the pantry."

I glanced at Nate's scowl, "because you two locked me in there."

"You were whining like a five year old!" Kale said rolling his eyes.

Nate turned to me, looking defensive, "I wanted Hawaiian and they said that didn't even count as pizza cause of the pineapple. How stupid is that?"

"You guys realize you can order pizza with two different kinds on each half right?"

They all looked at one another in surprise.

I burst out laughing. See what happens when you don't actually need to eat human food?

When the pizza came, we were each having a beer and when the bell rang, Kade went to it, turning the foyer light off. He shouted through the door, "put the pizza down and turn around and face the street!"

I snorted, rolling my eyes and shaking my head in disbelief. "Kudos Kade," I said as he opened the door, threw the money out and lifted up the pizza. "Way to not draw attention us, that's not weird and criminally suspicious, not at all."

Kale was watching out the window curtains, and he nodded at Kade as he set the pizza down. "Delivery kid is gone."

"Probably thinks we broke in here or something," Nate apparently agreed with me.

"That was the-," a cellphone rang and we all turned to Kade.

"It's Adam," he said, checking the screen. In other words, 'everyone, shut up'. He answered it, putting the phone on speaker. "How'd it go?"

" _Why didn't anyone answer the land line_?" was Adam's greeting.

We all shared looks.

"Were all outside, Mara wanted to go for a walk," Kade explained.

" _She can hardly move without being in pain, why would she want to go anywhere_?" Adam sounded incredulous.

"Down the beach, she said and I quote 'if I don't exercise and stretch I'll get lazy, I don't have supernatural bodies that burn fat'," Kade said smirking at me when I scowled. I did not say that, and I didn't sound like that either, I didn't care what I weighed or what I ate. Besides, the constant adrenaline rush burns off any extra calories I may have.

" _What did she say about the news_?"

"Just that, that must've been how the School thought they could locate her. They probably thought we'd be found or she would be seen with us and it would be reported," Kade said evenly.

" _And how is she now_?"

"Fine. I think she's getting tired, the walk wore her out really fast."

" _Good, keep an eye on her tonight. She seems like the kind of person to keep her word but I don't want to risk it. She's highly unpredictable_ ," I rolled my eyes. Then he opened his stupid mouth again, " _and she's kind of a spaz."_

"Son-,"Nate's hand covered my mouth suddenly and he threw me a look at the same time Kale and Kade shared amused looks.

"Oh don't worry, I'm sure she'll be on her best behaviour," Kade said grinning now. "What did the Council say? Anything?"

Adam went quiet now and a bad feeling took root and I pulled Nate's hand from my mouth. " _Most of what they said in regards to her, we already assumed. They want her interrogated which is just another way of saying tortured, to locate the other hunters if she's found first. They also made it abundantly clear, hunters will be annihilated regardless of the press. They don't care that she's only sixteen and I tried to hint that she might be mislead, they don't care. Any humans that killed our kind have always been eliminated and they plan on keeping to tradition._ "

"And they have no idea who runs the school, who set up that press conference? Did you tell them it as faked?" Kade asked warily.

" _I couldn't tell them it was faked without explaining we've actually had a face-to-face with Mara that didn't end up in a fight. They have no idea that were hiding something, I don't want them to get suspicious. The other two First Blood leaders will be with me at the press conference tomorrow afternoon as a show of support_."

"And her blood?"

" _I spoke to my friend, I mentioned her blood had looked weird during the fight. He's never heard of tainted blood, but he'll look into it. Should know more this weekend, which is when Henry will be coming to the house_."

"What are we going to do with Mara? Henry doesn't have the senses, but he is a psychic," Kade said.

" _Have you or Kale been able to read her mind_?" my eyes widened, my jaw dropped and as I started to say something again, Nate's hand covered my mouth once more.

Kale stared at me and I glared back at him as Kade answered, "no. Still static-y. Sometimes when she's mad or upset we can almost hear her, but it's still not clear."

I relaxed.

I didn't know they could read minds. What the hell? You'd think I deserved to know something like that. Sheesh.

"Alright, there heading back to the house, I'm going to go catch up," Kade said after a moment of silence. "When will you be back?"

"Saturday, before Henry gets there."

"Okay. Be careful."

" _You too. Keep her out of trouble_."

I grinned as Kade sighed, "easier said than, brother."

He hung up the phone and I lifted the beer taking a long pull from it. As I set it down, I said the first thing that popped into my head. "You can read minds?!"

The night was relatively calm. I had a bit of cabin fever when I crawled into the master bedroom upstairs. It was only a three bedroom, but I don't think they were all planning on sleeping. I was kind of drunk, but I could've sworn I heard Kade saying something about each of them having a shift to keep guard.

I didn't care.

I thought they were kind of going overboard, so I just dropped down onto the bed, still wearing the same clothes as earlier and promptly passed out.

I had nightmares last night again, and I woke up screaming, a pale faced Kale was on top of me, holding me down. I guess I'd been moving or something. Neither of us had said anything at first, but Kale fell off of me, both of us breathing hard. I realized I was covered in a cold sweat, and I pulled the dress off, rubbing my face tiredly.

When he pulled me towards him, I didn't resist or argue. I just curled up against him and let his breathing lull me back to sleep.

The next day, everyone was tense and edgy and I could see that Kade was on the verge of calling off this little mission.

When eight thirty rolled around and everyone began preparing, I was waiting.

He said exactly what I predicted, "We shouldn't do this."

I rolled my eyes, tying the top half of my hair back. I'd purposely tried to stay still and only moved around when they weren't looking or in the room. My leg hadn't healed yet. It was still pretty bad and it still hurt. I didn't want them to see because I was looking forward to this.

"Brother, were already here," Kale said sighing. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who'd been waiting for him to start second guessing.

"You're not the one that's going to get stabbed by our coven leader. Adam leaves me in charge because he trusts me to have a level head. We should've told him what we were doing."

Nate and I shared looks, both of us looking at Kale next. If anyone knew how to handle Kade, it was his twin. Nate came over to me, a black twirled wire in his hand. "This will let us communicate, it'll only last a few hours, less depending on the distance. I estimate two and a half hours of life, I just tested them so their fine. When we split up, we'll turn them on."

I put the earbud in, sliding it under the halter top. I still had bite scars and I figured the halter top was the best way to keep the old wounds hidden.

Kale and Kade spoke quietly, heatedly in the kitchen and Nate grabbed up a gun from the coffee table, passing it to me. I took it, turning the safety on and off, then taking out the clip and making sure it was full before putting it back in. I slid it under the back waist band of my jeans and Nate passed me two blades next. I didn't have my usual sheaths, so I settled for sliding them into my boots, they had inner sheaths that would keep them from cutting me.

Nate put his own weapons away and the twins returned to the living room. Kade looked edgy and Kale gave me a nod. "Alright, all of our phones are charged. Text every five minutes to 'okay' your situation in the group conversation we made. If anything happens, phone or text one of the safe words," which was 'funky town' in case the School found one of us. 'Holy Moses' was a problem with the humans or for me it would be Other's, and for the Council guard it was 'cheese and crackers'. Don't know why that was the safe word, but whatever. If something is happening, I don't know how they expected me to say 'cheese and crackers' without it being weird.

"At exactly nine o'clock, we show, were in public, not a moment later, understood?" Kade said sternly. He turned to me as we all nodded, and enunciated his words, "stay out of trouble."

I saluted him with my middle finger. I was getting real tired of being treated like a child just because I was a little immature. I knew adults with less maturity _and_ I was a sixteen year old assassin.

Kade gave me a dry look, "let's go."

They all headed to the door and I got up and followed as evenly as I could.

If Kade found out I could still hardly walk he would call this off. I wanted to go to the pier. I kind of wish one of them was coming, but I would go alone because I had to.

We all climbed into three separate vehicles and took turns pulling out of the driveway.

I was the last to leave because I only needed to park. I didn't have to get into place the same way they did.

I don't know why I was so nervous about this. It could've been any number of reasons so I decided not to try and figure out which was to blame.

I parked, and saw the time. I still had a couple minutes to wait and then I checked my phone. Nate told me to turn on the mic. I pulled out the wire from under my shirt, and hit the bottom button. Immediately, a sharp whirring exploded in my ear and I gasped, yanking the wire out.

Glaring at the thing I lifted it closer, hearing the static and strange loud beeping. I called Nate, it took three tries just to get it through. Even the texting took a couple tries, geez I thought Nate was a techy, these phone services sucked.

"Turn your mic on!" he nearly shouted in greeting.

"I did," i said as I pulled the phone away. I just had that thing blow up in my ear and now he was yelling in it. Douche. "It's not working, it's just static and this awful loud sound."

"It was working ten minutes ago, is it ripped anywhere?"

"No! I didn't do it either. Look, I'll text you every five minutes. But I gotta go. It'll be fine, just go to your premiere and keep your phone on." I hung up and climbed out of the car. I tossed the wire down onto the seat and pocketed the car keys.

I looked around at the city night life, smiling a little. It had been a while since I'd had some actual alone time. When I was with them, I felt like a prisoner, even though Adam assured me I wasn't one anymore.

I was basically free right now. So why didn't I feel like it?

I should run. I had very little reason not to. I was hurting the coven more than anything. Other than the physical connection we all had there was no other reason to stick around.

So why didn't I want to take off?

Nate texted me, telling me to be careful. It was a private message. He hadn't told the twins that the ear piece wasn't working.

I reached the pier, and realized that it was closed. Yellow police tape covered the entrance. "What the hell?" I muttered, glancing past it.

All of the lights were off, no one inside, no rides or music. Just dead and kind of creepy. Damn. What the hell do I now?

I turned, looking around and saw two girls walking in some slutty dresses and ridiculously high heels. "Hmm," they were more or less sober, which told me they were probably going to a club or a bar.

That would work.

I followed them casually, and eventually after about a five minute walk, saw them near a club. I caught up quickly, getting as close as possible and smiling as the bouncer waved them into a club, pretending I was with them.

We entered the room, and thankfully, it was a human club.

I brushed past them and went to the bar.

I got a drink, sitting down and looking at the bar. So far, no one recognized me because technically I was a teenager, so what would I be doing here, right? Wrong. Definitely the place to look for an assassin who seemed to be growing a conscience.

I debated how to go about this. I was hoping just a random sighting would do the trick. But, people were drunk and not looking for missing teens.

Girls would probably be my best bet.

I saw a group sitting at a booth in the back, two girls and couple of guys. They were all mostly sober, but they all had their phones out.

When one of the girls got up, I went in that direction, trying to seem distracted and bumped into her. We apologized at the same time and she looked up, I gave her a smile. "I'm sorry. I'm just so clumsy," I said giving her a little laugh.

"I-It's fine," her eyebrows furrowed, "do I know you? You look so familiar."

I shrugged good naturedly, "oh, probably not. I don't live in this area. I'm Cassie," I held my hand out.

She shook it, still looking confused, then looked around us, "are you here with someone? Maybe we went to school together?"

"Maybe, and no, I came alone. I had a rough week, needed to get away."

She gave me a bright smile now, "come hang out with us!"

"Okay," she took my hand, leading me to her table.

"Everybody this is Cassie, she's all alone and needs some awesome people to chill with," she said, sitting me down next to the guys.

I gave them a small, almost shy, smile as Michelle introduced me to everyone. And everyone at the table seemed quick to make nice with me.

Thinking to myself, that was pretty easy. Wow, alcohol, if I ever need some quick friends, I might do this again. They all were staring at me now, trying to place me. "What's your name again?" one of the guys asked, Mark, I think his name was.

I took another drink of my cup, finishing it off. "Cassie, my name is Cassie," I said and Jake, the guy next to me, reached for the pitcher of beer in the center of the table. He filled both of our glasses.

"She looks so familiar doesn't she?" Andy said to the group.

They all nodded their agreement. "What, were you in a Justin Bieber music video or something?" Jess asked me.

I tilted my head, "who?"

They all shared disbelieving looks and I said, quickly, "just kidding," clearly that was someone I should know, "no, I wasn't."

I gave them a nervous chuckle.

They started talking about Justin Bieber, who I realized was a famous singer. I didn't follow the conversation very long, and noticed that two of them had their phones out and were typing on it. "She's the missing kid!" one of the girls exclaimed, showing everyone the school picture of me, with the word missing beneath it.

They all turned to stare at me in shock, and I smiled, "no, I'm not. I've been mistaken for her before though. Real shame about her though. I read that she was quite the girl."

"You-You could be her twin!" Jake said in shock. "You look just like her, isn't she sixteen? How old are you!"

"Twenty one," I said evenly. They wouldn't honestly believe that would they?

"No, look, the missing girl looks all uptight and stuck up," Jess said, shrugging.

"Yeah, you are definitely hotter," Andy said in agreement now.

Jake turned his phone on, "take a picture with me!"

I mentally rolled my eyes, well this was turning out pretty easy. I leaned into him as he draped an arm over my shoulder and Andy was suddenly on the other side of me, pressing into me and I grinned a little as Jake snapped a picture of the three of us, captaining it, 'Missing teen, Mara Tarrin's look-a-like found!"

I grinned, watching him post it on a site called twitter and snap chat. I gave them a fake name, mostly because I didn't want to get arrested too soon. I wanted to have another drink before the cops were called on me.

I gave it an hour before it was circulating enough. Which meant I had an hour to enjoy myself and hang out.

I finished off the beer, talking with them a bit, keeping quiet when I didn't understand some of the mainstream stuff I had never heard of. I figured out that most of the group just met. Jake, Andy and Mark had never met the girls before. The girls had been here a while, Michelle and Jess had been here dancing when they met the three guys from out of town.

We finished off the pitcher of beer before ordering a second and when I checked my phone, an hour and a half had gone by. And it was blowing up with messages and missed calls.

The last three, were from Adam.

Uh-oh.

I grimaced, and was about to answer the next call that came through when Mark grabbed it and turned it off. "Whoever just called totally bumbed you out. No more phone for you," he pocketed it and I laughed. Adam was going to kill me.

"Come on, let's dance," Jake said, grabbing my hand and tugging me out of the booth.

We hit the dance floor and he pulled me to him. I found I kind of wished it was one of the St. Delphi's holding me, but quickly dismissed it. This was normal, these were humans. I could control this, drunk or not. I didn't feel so out of my comfort zone, I didn't feel stripped bare when these guys touched me because they were nobody and they were _human_.

I let him dance with me, I kind of enjoyed it too. After a while, I felt Mark join us and I mostly ignored the growing warning in my gut. The St. Delphi's couldn't find me and the School couldn't. I was in a freaking club right now!

After another hour the lights went out suddenly, not just the lights, all of the power. Aside from the confused and irritated shouting from drunk dancers, it was silent.

I realized who was here instantly.

The School.

I swore, turned and began stumbling drunkenly through the partiers for the front door. It opened and Beta team was illuminated by the light from the street

I backed up hard, stumbling and hitting the ground. They zeroed in on me instantly. I scrambled up, and I knew the other exits would either be locked or watched. I threw myself into them and we crashed into the sidewalk.

Breathing hard and half-drunk I righted myself and ran down the street. They were on me in seconds, Matthew grabbed me and swung me into the alley and I hit the ground with a groan.

The world spun for a moment and I nearly threw up as it did. A tranq gun was lifted up and I rolled as quickly as I could and dove to the side of a dumpster. I grabbed up a tin lid, standing with it in front of my face. More darts hit it and I turned it and whipped it at them. It got Bentley and he went down.

But when I turned to run again, one of them crashed into me. We went down and I was hit hard in the cheek and then again in the other side of my face. I threw my arms up, and suddenly they went flying backwards as if I had thrown them like a beach ball.

I sat up, backing away as I watched Michael land on the far side of the street with a sickening crack. I stood up, heart pounding and world spinning. I felt like all of the energy had been zapped from me, or as though I had drank those two pitchers of beer to myself.

I looked down at my hands, my totally normal hands and heard a click. I looked up, throwing my hands out to cover my face as darts flew at me. Until nothing happened, I swayed, seeing the darts two feet away floating in place. I swayed again, and they hit the ground in front of me.

The three soldiers stepped forward, arms dropped until they were two feet away. We all stared one another, not a single one of us understanding what just happened. Matt raised his arm, and as he reached forward between the space, well, he didn't. His hand went maybe a few inches before it met some unseen force. He pushed, and then Jeff threw his fist out and I felt it. It was like a hammer into my head. I gasped, swaying for the third time.

Jeff and Matt shared looks, "she doesn't know she just did that, look, she's getting weak. Hit it again," Matt ordered.

Jeff did just that, he punched the force once more and I jerked back, keeping my hands up and trying to hold onto the force that was keeping us all apart. But when he lifted a gun, not at me, but aimed at the invisible wall and slightly to the side, he pulled the trigger.

I groaned now, feeling something warm and wet slide down my nose, my head was aching and my breathing had gone shallow. What just happened?

Why didn't those darts hit me? Why couldn't they touch me?

The world spun and I sank to my knees when my legs gave out. I wiped my nose, seeing the blood on my hand.

Someone crashed into me, throwing me back onto the cold wet ground.

A dart gun was pointed at my face and I froze wide eyed.

"She's drunk and her power has been exhausted, just hit her once," Matthew ordered from above me.

Jeff didn't get the chance to even pull the trigger. Something hit him, too fast for me to catch, and then whatever it was came back and Matthew was thrown across the alley, getting knocked out. I scrambled back, breathing hard as a First Blood appeared in front of me.

I didn't recognize him.

But I did.

Who was he?

He stared down at me, hard and cold features, black hair and just as black eyes. He seemed so familiar to me.

"Who are you?" I breathed.

He helped me up and I fell back against the brick wall half-conscious, I was so tired, watching him wearily. "I am Kylar," he said evenly. "You're the new St. Delphi."

I frowned, I didn't like how he said that, "what? No! I-I'm Mara, I don't know the St. Delphi's. Other than crashing their solstice party."

He smirked, stepping towards me and leaning down so we were face to face. I swallowed hard, turning away as he inhaled along the side of my face. I wanted to push him away, but I also didn't want to touch him, I feared what would happen.

He chuckled, and I looked back up at him uneasily. "Adam hasn't told you anything, has he? If you don't recognize me or know who you are, you must not know much at all."

"Wh-what does that mean?" I asked breathlessly. It's a good thing I was leaning against the wall already or I would've fallen over.

Who the hell was this guy?

Oh right, Kylar.

"Ask Adam about The Claiming," Kylar said, backing up a step. "And about the sire you killed."

What? That _I_ killed?

"Who are you?" I demanded again, more forcefully.

Kylar was suddenly in front of me, his mouth slamming down onto mine. A sensation ripped over me, so familiar and twisted that my legs gave out. He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me against him and deepening it.

And I let him.

I let him kiss me more intimately then I'd ever let anyone kiss me before. When he pulled away, I collapsed, sliding to the ground in a daze. "I'm family," his voice was harsh and his teeth were elongating hungrily. But he didn't attack me, the opposite.

He was there one minute, gone the next.

I blinked, staring at the spot he been in, wondering if I was hallucinating. I brought my hand up to my mouth, touching my lips. I could still feel his lips pressed against mine, devouring me, his desire to touch me inside and out. I could still feel how he made me feel, how good he tasted, how good he felt touching me.

Just like the St. Delphi's, I didn't feel that urge to kill him either.

I felt thrown, like I was airborne and about to free-fall. No safety net to catch me. I would just keep falling and falling until one of them touched me and I was caught. I didn't want to be caught. I wanted to land on my own two feet like I'd been trained to.

Half out of it, I used the brick wall to stand and I went back towards the street. I had completely forgotten the School was here until the rest of Beta team appeared.

I paused, as they all lifted the dart guns. I couldn't fight these guys, not as partially drunk and totally spent as I was. "You guys wouldn't possibly be willing to reschedule this little tango, would you?" I chuckled nervously.

"Sorry, Mara, we have orders," I grimaced.

Arms wrapped around me and there was a crash of metal and as Adam spun us, darts flying past us, his back to them now. I glimpsed some kind of machine crash down in an explosion of wires and metal and plastic, forcing Beta team to dive out of the way.

A car pulled up and Adam took my hand and yanked me around the machine. Kale and Kade dropped down from the roof of the club and we all piled into the car.

As the car lurched forward, I watched Beta team speak into some kind radio. I turned back as Adam's grasp on me started to hurt.

"Jesus, would you-," Adam threw me a pitch black glare that shut me instantly.

I tugged my hand from his tightening and painful grip.

Everyone was quiet and tense as we drove back to the safe house.

As soon as we got there. Adam started yelling. "What the fuck did you idiots think you were doing?" he shouted, mostly at Kade.

We all sat down on the couch, tensely. "It was a good plan Adam," Kade said evenly, arms crossed.

"She can hardly walk! Or did none of you notice her inability to stand without flinching! How she managed to fight that team from the School is beyond me!"

They all looked at me now, "sorry," I said to them, I turned to Adam, "I should've been fine by now. I don't know why I'm not and I didn't let them see that I wasn't."

"Adam it was a good plan. She was _supposed_ to be at the pier," Kale said, throwing me a glare.

"Pier was closed," I said simply.

Nate who was beside me, slowly turned and stared at me in confusion. He took a deep breath, before asking me, "Who were you with?"

"What?" I asked, bewildered.

Nate leaned into me and I backed up a little as he inhaled more deeply along my collarbone and shoulder.

His eyes widened and he turned to Adam, "there's a First Blood scent all over her. Someone was touching her!"

What a tattle tale. Wait.

A bad feeling hit me, and as I glanced around at everyone's blackening eyes and the growling that filled the room. I realized why.

Not good. The danger level just went up about a hundred for me.

Adam grabbed me, slamming me against the wall, holding my arms against my back tightly. I winced, letting out a pained breath. He inhaled along my shoulder and hair and his growl got more volume. "When did he touch you and how?"

"I-," I gasped in pain as his grip tightened and I pressed into the wall, squeezing my eyes shut. "H-he saved me!" I cried out and Adam released me abruptly.

I fell to the ground, and chest heaving I looked up, seeing that Nate had pulled Adam off of me. Adam, who looked like he was about ready to attack me. "Explain to me how that means he gets to touch you," Adam seethed, trying to push past Nate.

Kale came over to me, helping me up and setting me back down on the couch as I rolled my now, aching shoulders. Kade stood between all of us, facing Adam and I realized they were really worried about him actually hurting me.

Guilt filled me.

I was the shittiest hostage in the world. I so nearly laughed at that thought. Nearly.

"Beta team," I said staring passed Kade to Adam. "Beta team was there. They were about to dart me, that guy came out of nowhere and separated all of us. He pulled me up and shoved me back when they nearly darted me again. You said it yourself, I can hardly move without being in pain."

They went quiet, but Adam was still pissed off. "No, this wasn't him helping you up. He's all over you. What did he look like, what was his name?"

I scowled at him, "I don't know, he didn't stick around to chat! I got the impression he was just passing by and thought they were kidnapping me. I don't know who he was."

Not really anyway.

"And the club? You think I didn't see the video of you dancing with those two men?" Adam snapped, taking a menacing step forward. "They were all over you Mara, they wanted to take you home! They would have and I saw how drunk you were!"

The other three turned to stare at me and I blurted out the stupidest response, "there was a video?"

Kale lifted out his phone and I leaned over his arm, and then less than a minute later, there I was. Dancing, sandwiched between those two men. It wasn't that obvious I was drunk, especially with the dancing.

I grimaced, backing away from Kale as I felt the fury rising in him. He tossed the phone at Kade and then Nate was next to him and I heard the obnoxious high quality club music. This was about to blow up in my face.

Kale was growling at me now and a moment as the video ended, the other two were too. Adam wasn't anymore, but his eyes were still black. I glared at Adam, "that's what this is about? You saw the video and that's why you're all pissed off! And you say I'm immature, you controlling douche!"

Kale grabbed me by the throat, slamming me down onto the couch and I gasped, gripping his arm as he squeezed. "I promise you, if anyone so much as lays a hand on you, we will make you severely regret it," he seethed, grip tightening before he released me.

I wheezed, blinking up at the ceiling, stunned and kind of scared. Okay, I was more than a little scared.

I sat up, and the first thing I did was snap my fist into his face. He fell off the couch and then Kade and Nate were pushing us apart as we surged for one another. "Tell me what to do and that concern Adam had of me being unpredictable, I'll make it your biggest fear!"

Kale growled at me, lunging as Kade grabbed onto him, shoving him back. Nate was glaring at me fiercely. Adam spoke, voice harsh, "well Mara, if your plan was to infuriate us all, it worked. Yyou managed to royally piss us all off. Congratulations, the spot light is off of us and you're listed as a wanted runaway. Now go to bed."

Oh fuck did that ever sound familiar.

Slowly, rage filled me, burned in me. I turned, eyes burning as that red haze burned to take over and made me ache to lash out.

"Uh-oh," Nate said, watching me wide eyed, he actually backed up a step. I knew, physically, I couldn't fight for shit, but I could end this quickly.

I lifted a glass pane from the coffee table and whipped it at Adam. He ducked and I over turned the table and they all had to jump back as I rounded and took off out the side door.

I climbed into the car before they could catch me, leaving the driveway and going down the street.

I slammed my palm into the steering wheel.

A tear filled cry left me now, the red haze had faded. I don't know why I didn't try to attack them. It made more sense than running away had. But a slicing had cut into my heart just throwing that pane at Adam. I truly couldn't hurt them, even when I wanted to, even when I tried to.

I hated being treated this way. What the hell would it take for people to treat me equally? I was a teenager, yes, but I didn't deserve this. I wasn't just a kid and I had proved that over and over again. It hurt me, deeply, that people treated me like this. You'd think I deserved a little more respect.

I parked a couple blocks away, climbing out and entered a darkened children's park. Trees surrounded the area, thick ones.

With a sigh, i entered the sandbox, going to the swing set and dropping down tiredly.

I knew I'd be going back, but I was upset and I needed a moment to calm down.

I looked up, despite the pain I started to push myself back and forth a little, leaning against the chain as I gripped it at the seat's edge.

The moon was full. Maybe that was why I was going so crazy. I was always a little wilder during the full moon. Come to think of it, I never had any in the field jobs during the full moon. Was this why? Did I have some weird hormonal thing during the full moon?

Maybe I wasn't human after all. It would explain so much. How some force appeared as Beta team came at me. How I was so fast and could land on my two feet as I dropped five stories, my senses and strong intuition. Maybe I never had been human.

I didn't know.

I felt like I didn't know anything anymore.

I took a deep sad breath, and then felt them.

Two of the St. Delphi's were here.

I didn't show any indication that I'd heard or felt them.

Someone gripped the chains and I smiled a little as one of them pulled me back and let me go. I flew forward, unable to hide my grin. I saw Kale take the other swing and sit down. I knew who was pushing me then. Kade.

He pulled the swing back even further and I held the chains at my shoulders, content to just enjoy the ride.

After about half an hour, Kade stopped.

I pouted, but eventually smiled a little more calm as I turned to Kale, who I'd mostly ignored during my impromptu swinging session.

Kale had been watching me, I could tell by the fond, slightly content smile on his face. "You look kind of happy. I don't really see that on you much," he admitted, leaning forward and brushing the hair from my face.

"Who am I to you?" I whispered, ready to jump right into it again.

Kale's hand dropped and I watched, for what felt like the hundredth time, as the wall slammed down on him. I reached forward, taking Kale's hand and facing him steadily. "Who am I you?" I asked, voice even lower.

He held my hand in his, looking down at them. Mine was so small in his. I was so small compared to them. I couldn't be the only person that they've felt this intensely with. "You aren't," he said quietly, looking back up, eyes darkening slightly. "But you're the only one that has ever touched our souls without trying to and that makes you everything to us."

I blinked, surprised. "What does that mean?"

Man, did I ever talk out loud too much when I drank. I didn't even think the alcohol was still affecting me. Maybe it was something else. Maybe I just let my guard down around them.

"You're one in a million Mara, more, even more rare then that, one in a billion. We've met millions of people. You are the only one in all of our lives that in addition to the way you make us feel, managed to touch us, each of us," he raised his other hand, his hand pressing against my chest over my heart as it picked up, "in here."

"This thing we share, the connection, it is not just physical. I know you want it to be, and I think a part of you needs it to be, but it isn't. I know you want to believe that it is just that, flesh, a sensation that can only manifest on your body," Kade was kneeling down next to me as he spoke, reaching up and cupping my cheek as his thumb padded along beneath my right eye. "But it's not."

Kale spoke again, and I turned back to him, even as Kade left his hand against my face, where it slid down to cup the nape of my neck. "The bond we share, it will only grow, it will only get stronger the longer we are together." Kale tilted his head, giving me a sad smile, "And baby, It doesn't care that you are a hunter, one sent to kill us. It doesn't care about what any of us desires. It is what it is. I know that isn't what you want to hear and we didn't want to tell you this because we knew how you felt."

My eyes watered, and a tear slid free, but I stared back at him through the blur as he spoke softly, "We didn't tell you to treat you unequally. We didn't tell you because we knew that this isn't something you wanted. It is primal, Mara, it is beneath all of our differences and histories; in our souls. It will always be there, and if we separated, it would take us straight back to you. Babygirl, it's _forever_."

Tears slid free and I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my face to my free hand gripping the chain. "I didn't want any of this."

"I know," Kale said sadly.

How am I supposed to give into something that I was taught to hate on principal? They still had yet to tell me what it meant. But for now, I don't think I wanted to know. Finding out it wouldn't be going away and it would only get worse, crushed me.

More tears fell.

Kade pulled me off of the swing, holding me in his arms as I trembled as though I was cold. I leaned against him, laying my forehead against his shoulder. He rocked us back and forth, comforting me as though I were a small scared child and I let him. Because, at this moment, I felt like I was a small scared child and they were my family. And for a moment, I wanted it to be just that.

After a while I drifted off, letting my heavy eyelids slide shut and succumbed to sleep.


	11. Wake-Up Call

_I woke up slowly, someone was running their hand up my thigh. The touch was familiar, and it caused me to shift a little, sighing and trying to let the sleep pull me back down. "Mara," their lips were lightly against my ear as they spoke, voice deep and low, "babygirl, wake up," I shifted again as their hand slid the rest of the way up my thigh and then over the thin piece of lace that covered my hip._

" _Wake up babygirl," another somewhat deeper voice said, "come on, wake up," a hand tilted my face up and I moaned and tensed as a hand slid under my shirt and splayed across my stomach._

" _What are you doing?" I mumbled tiredly, blinking up at Kade as his thumb slid down the edge of my face to my lips, where he parted my lower one from the upper one, Kale's hand slid up my shirt, where he cupped my breast and I gasped, heart picking up as he pressed his body to mine, growling into my hair lowly. I was wide awake now, staring up at Kade as his eyes darkened and he took my hand in his, intertwining them._

" _What are you doing?" I asked breathlessly, feeling the hardening bulge of his jeans pressing against the curve of my backside._

" _Exactly what you think were doing," Kade responded, voice heavier than usual and he press his lips to mine firmly, cupping my face and holding it to his as I tried to pull back when he deepened it. It wasn't the kiss that was making me uneasy, it was the hand that was sliding back down my stomach to the lace covering me._

 _Kale's voice was in my ear again, whispering hoarsely, "shh, we would never hurt you babygirl, just relax," as I shifted and tried to move, he pressed himself to my back more firmly as Kade's kiss deepened and became devouring._

 _I tensed as Kale's hand reached the lace and slid under the waistband. "Your fear is making it harder to stay in control, calm down," Kale said hoarsely as his fingers slid along my clit and I jolted, eyes wide and heart pounding._

 _I was suddenly more overwhelmed then I'd ever been before and I wasn't liking it. Panic filled me and I-_

I flew up in the bed, heart pounding, sweating as I looked around in panic. But I was alone, for once I was asleep in my bed. I laid back down, rubbing my wrists as though the cuffs had actually been there. I let out a low shaky breath, feeling my body aching in a way I'd never felt before. I could still feel Kales hands as he cupped my breasts, I could feel Kades mouth on me. My thighs clenched as I struggled to get control of my body again. What the hell was that? I had never once dreamt of having sex, I'd dreamt of kissing people before. Never had a dream that wasn't a nightmare been so real. Nightmares sure, but despite the cuffs it hadn't been bad. I'd liked it. So much that I was disappointed and left unsatisfied. All things considered, if they had tried to initiate some kind of sexual experience with me, that was exactly how I imagined it going.

I turned over, looking out the window and gripped the blankets as I forced myself back to sleep, hoping I didn't have another dream like that. I don't think I could handle another dream like that without throwing my hormones even more out of control when it comes to them. I struggled enough to keep from touching them and wanting them, it would be much harder if I started dreaming of them.

I don't know what happened when the Council Historian came to the house. All I know is, it did _not_ go well.

Want to know how I know that?

Their behaviour. It wasn't just one of them, it was all of them. Nate was more serious than usual, less the all over the place twenty two year old that he usually was. Kade was quieter then he normally was, and Kale looked twice as worried and Adam? Adam was crabbier than when we'd returned, with a permanent scowl on his face crabbier.

And on top of that, they were all avoiding me. Now, normally, I wouldn't give a fuck. But I also got the impression something was being hidden and that was not helping matters.

So when everyone would make an excuse to leave the room when I walked in, or simply changed the subject every time I even hinted at wanting to know what the fuck was going on, I eventually gave up.

I had given them a week.

They had two days left.

Either they would tell me what their friend said, or they wouldn't. Regardless, even if they answered every question I had, even seventy five percent of my questions, I didn't think I would be sticking around. I appreciated their help, I did. But this whole connection forever thing? I wasn't okay with it and they knew that.

If they tried to keep me here, well, I would blow up their house, I had already made the decision to do so and I was already collecting all of the parts I would need just for that. I just hoped they didn't notice the random things going missing.

I spent a lot of time in their library, which was huge. They had an amazing collection of books, it rivalled the School's. I really didn't get bored, although I was getting cabin fever really bad now. Not going anywhere, the guys were always paranoid even when I just went for a run, one of them insisted on joining me. I promised I'd be a good little guest-age for exactly one week, so I was. I didn't make a fuss about going anywhere, despite aching to do some damage and needing to get out and hunt.

I had spent another afternoon in the library after going on a ridiculously long run this morning. I figured I could harass one of the twins into sparring with me, or spending a couple of hours in their gym tonight. Like the last couple of days, I'd been more or less on my own.

I did occasionally hear them fighting, mostly at night. Another thing, one of them would always come lay with me, but not until after I'd fallen asleep, probably to avoid talking to me. I was trying not to be hurt, trying not to think they had a problem with me, but it was getting harder and harder.

I kind of missed the company, but I also wasn't about to ask them to spend time with me, because, well, that was just pathetic. I was really starting to reach my quota on pathetic behaviour.

And here I am, pathetically wishing I wasn't constantly missing their presence. It wasn't just one of them either, it was all of them. Nate kind of reminded me of Camdon, he was always so happy and kind of boy-ish, not that there was anything boyish about him. He always wanted to do something fun, like play video games or something. Not that we'd been doing any bonding as of late. I did like the one afternoon where we spent cooking a decent non-lethal meal, turns out, Nate does not like following instructions when it comes to recipes. You'd think being an actor it'd be easy for him.

Then there was the twins, Kale didn't mind talking with me or just reading in the library and listening to music. Turns out both of them had a hidden talent for music. I'd found Kale and Kade in the music room in the basement at different times. Kale liked piano and Kade seemed like messing around with all of the guitars. Kade was also the more hands-on active one, I loved sparring and working out with Kade because he seemed to enjoy it too. Kale was more the brainy of the two and Kade was the protector, though Kale was the buffer between the family, the referee when fights broke out. Aside from when I pissed him off too.

Adam was the leader. The take charge one, and he did. He was always giving out orders it seemed like, always doing business, on the phone or doing something in his office. Sometimes he would join me in the library, but to be honest, since Henry's visit, we did a lot of arguing. Every time we were in a room together lately, it ended in screaming matches. I knew he was the reason the others weren't telling me anything, and I mean anything. They wouldn't tell me if they'd heard anything on the School, from the Council, nothing.

I'd resorted to relying on the internet and news for information, two other high society Other's had gone missing. The head of a Dark coven in Siberia and one of the more well-known Night Crawlers from Australia. Neither were Council members, but they were highly respected. The Dark Leader was said to have a mental ability for reading minds, and the Night Crawler was old, one of the oldest creatures on record. I was certain there were older ones that kept in the shadows that the world had no knowledge of, but the Night Crawler was nearly a thousand years old.

It was pretty clear that whoever was taking these guys were strong and smart. It had to be the School, maybe even my own team. It just solidified my plan. I needed to go back to the School, I needed my own files, Jason's and Carters. Maybe everyone's.

I closed the book I'd spent the afternoon reading, it was from the section of journal's Adam owned. It had been from a Light with a natural ability for psychics. It was intriguing, reading it had been kind of confusing, considering she had died over a hundred and fifty years ago and she had been from Rome, so it hadn't all been easy to read.

Adam had an extensive collection of diaries, most of them were regarding Supernatural's, very few were of humans, and the ones that were, were mostly military. So I hadn't been too interested in those ones. I'd tried reading one yesterday, but ten pages in and it had made me want to take off and go wreak some havoc. I figured I better put that one away before I go start a war just on sheer desire to shed some Other blood.

The diary, it really got me thinking. In particular, the night in L.A. when I fought with Beta team outside of that human club. It had been pretty clear I had done something. Some kind of invisible thing had separated all of us, the darts, the bullets, them. They hadn't been able to penetrate it until they used a gun. Everything they did though, I felt the impact mentally and it had totally exhausted me.

On top of that, I hadn't mentioned any of what that Kylar guy said or did. I knew they would freak out if they found out he'd kissed me, and I got the impression they would know it had been my first kiss and that I, well, let him. They would totally miss the whole point of what I was trying to say. I was kind of scared of them finding out that Kylar kind of made me feel the same way as they did. They were all sorts of controlling, lord knows why, but I knew deep down they would be pissed if they found out he made me feel the same way as them and I was kind of scared they would take that out on me.

The Claiming, Kylar had also mentioned that as well, which led me to believe Adam knew more than he was letting on.

I sat up, dropping the old book down onto the coffee table, looking around thoughtfully. Then saw the desk a few feet away, covered in papers and pens. I bit my lip, thinking deeply.

I had done something. I know I had, and I had more or less forgotten about it until now. But what did I do? I was inebriated and scared of going back to the compound as a prisoner. I was scared of what they would do to me. I felt along the very faded scar up my stomach, and then bit my lip again as I stood up.

I leaned over the desk, gripping the back of the wooden chair. All I had done was throw up my hands and I had sent Michael flying into the other alley. That was a long way to throw someone without even touching them. Then the darts, whatever I had done, it was fast.

What I wanted to know. Could I do it again? Was it a defense mechanism of some sort, or was it a telekinetic ability? I wanted to find out. I needed to know what I did, and what it meant.

I took a deep breath, and focused. I did a few breathing techniques, relaxing but being mentally alert at the same time.

I felt wired, and exposed somehow. I hadn't even blinked, as I stared at the lined paper on the desk. I was focusing intently.

I pictured what I wanted. I wanted the paper up in the air. And, it fluttered, as if a breeze had lifted it up a little bit. I gripped the chair tighter, but I felt as though I were moving, as though I had invisible hands. I could feel the paper, yet I hadn't moved an inch since I'd started the breathing exercises ten minutes ago.

I could feel the paper as though I were holding it. It was a mental touch, I could feel it in my mind.

I gripped it, as though I had lifted it up and, slowly, shakily, it rose into the air until it was at eye level with me. I laughed breathlessly, heart pounding and sweating a little bit with the exertion it was taking out of me.

I couldn't believe it.

I had some kind of telekinetic ability.

But wait.

Didn't that I mean I wasn't human?

I snapped out of it, thoughts spinning at the implications. My concentration shattered and with a whoosh, all of the papers and pens went flying everywhere. I jumped in surprise and then I heard the door to the library open. I glanced up, seeing Adam walk in and pausing a the scattered sheets and writing supplies all over the ground.

"Having another temper tantrum already, princess?" he mocked.

I scowled at him, "god, you're a real jackass, you know that?"

He smirked at me, coming in and shelving several books. I didn't care to know what ones. I picked up the papers and what not, putting them back on the desk before sitting down on the couch. Floating that measly piece of paper had managed to exhaust me.

Was I an Other?

"Adam?" I called out, as he turned to leave. He paused in the door, not turning around, "can we still send my blood out?"

He tensed, turning to me eyes narrowed, "why?" he asked sharply.

I shrugged, "not missing anymore, if it goes to a different city and no one knows it's for you, we'd get a quick answer on one question."

His eyes narrowed even more as he scrutinized me, "I didn't realize you being human or not was in question."

"Tainted blood makes me wonder, and seeing as you have yet to tell me anything," I shrugged, "I have to start somewhere."

He stared at me, contemplating. When he answered, he sounded uneasy, "we haven't told you anything, because there's nothing to tell. Henry couldn't tell us anything, he was baffled when he met Carter. He couldn't even figure out what clan he was from."

I had spoken to Carter twice since we'd returned. All he would yell about is the Claiming, how people are out to get me and blood, particularly, my blood. Then his eyes would glow that awful red color and he'd try and attack me, and the very last time I saw him, he didn't even talk, just tried to bite me. It was unnerving and I didn't want to go back at all. "Henry didn't know anything, about my blood or Carter?" somehow that didn't sit right with me.

"Not really, he just said that Carter wasn't human, and that something had turned him, not that he'd been born that way. When we discussed the tainted blood, he had never heard of it. Which leaves us more questions than answers," he said sighing. "And Mara, I don't think sending your blood out will help. You're human, were all very certain of that. You smell human, you taste human, powerful, tainted and ours, but it's still human."

I stared at him mutely, watching as he left the library, closing the door behind him.

He said 'ours'.

I went down to make a sandwich and ended up siting down in the chair staring at the piece of paper from my first visit with Crazy Carter. After staring at the words over and over again they began to blend together until my head hurt. I laid my head down on the table, sighing in annoyance.

"Hey, girlie, watcha doin?" Nate asked, coming in and leaning down on the table.

He glanced at the paper and I crumpled it up quickly, "just doodling," I said evenly.

He tilted his head, "you're lying, but your heart didn't trip. How do you do that?"

"Training. Lots of training."

He grinned, "Training. Lame. That's all you've done here is train. Don't you do anything fun?"

"Training is fun, hunting is even more fun."

He rolled his eyes, but grinned more, "I guess you enjoying the hunt makes a certain amount of sense. You are one bad ass bitch."

I raised my eyebrows. "Wow, aren't you a charmer."

He laughed, reaching out for my hand, a hand that I yanked away, pretending I didn't see the flash in his eyes. "Well, you already spar with the twins. And unless were actually planning on trying to kill one another, not interested. I do have one idea. Let's go swimming!"

I kept down my thrill of excitement, he wanted to do something with me. God I was pathetic.

"It's almost winter time."

"We have an indoor pool."

They had an indoor pool? They already had one out back, but it was too cold to swim right now.

"What would I wear?"

"Nothing is preferred."

I guess I walked right into that one.

I sighed, shaking my head and rolling my eyes.

Swimming did sound good right about now. Hadn't gone assignment since the night they grabbed me, hadn't even left the property since our little mission in the city. I was getting restless and the library didn't have much I hadn't read by this point, other than the autobiographies.

"Alright, I'm in." I had nothing better to do anyways and I was getting lonely.

I didn't go naked, much to Nate's disappointment. I did go in my bra and underwear though, considering my only other option was nudity. I dove in, relaxing almost instantly. I had always loved swimming and lately I had missed it. I had swam in the School pool quite a bit recently too, up until being basically kidnapped.

I swam the rest of the way to the deep end of the pool before coming up with a breathy laugh. Nate dove in next to me, yanking me under and I sputtered back up, scowling at him as he came up smirking.

I backed up a bit, and he frowned now. "You really don't like being close to anyone, do you?"

"Maybe it's just you, you did bite me," I shot at him.

He rolled his eyes. "Adam bit you."

"And I don't like him touching me either."

He swam closer to me, and I backed up, and then he moved closer and we moved further and further back until he'd cornered me in the pool. I pressed against the wall, using my arm to keep hold of the ledge over my shoulder. He gripped the edges of the pool on either side of me, boxing me in.

Suddenly, I wasn't so relaxed anymore.

My jaw clenched and I looked away. He chuckled lowly, and I stilled, tensing against the pool as he moved in even closer so that our bodies touched just a little. "What are you doing?" I breathed hard, turning to glare at him.

He had a smile full of dark mirth as he stared at me, "what do you think I'm doing?"

I was getting real tired of the mind games. For days they all avoided and acted like they didn't want me around anymore.

"Back off, Nathaniel. Why am I even still here? It's not like any of gave me the time of day since we got back! None of you will even talk to me, so why the fuck am I sticking around?"

Round and round we go.

His gaze darkened some, irises going back and forth between bright blue and black. He was trying to stay in control of himself and his emotions. I was pissing him off. Good. "You know exactly why you're here," he said coldly, pressing his body to mine harder.

I let out a low breath, hand gripping the ledge even tighter. "You feel it too, you need to stop denying it," he said, voice dropping low.

I looked away, "it doesn't matter what I feel, _any_ of us feel. Were on different sides. I've hunted your kind for years, and you play with mine like were toys."

"That doesn't matter anymore, you can't kill us, and we can't kill you. It would be impossible, and it would devastate us if something happened to you, and vice versa. You're here, so that we can ensure your safety. You are here, because you _belong_ here. With us. Whether you want to be or not."

My jaw clenched, and he tilted my chin up to face him, but when he forced me to, he cupped the side of my face, his breath gliding across my skin.

I stared up at him, wanting to push him away, wanting to pull him closer. Wanting to run or fight. I didn't do any of those. I was frozen.

"Would you like to know why you aren't repulsed by us, like you are every single Other out there?" He didn't wait for an answer, "Because you're not just connected to us, you belong to us, and your body knows that. You're ours."

Wrong thing to say.

Anger burned up in me, and I shoved him away, climbing out of the water swiftly, "I don't belong to anyone! Touch me again and I'll break your wrist!"

He climbed out after me, following me. "You going to deny it to my face, you lie to yourself that deeply? Your body screams at us, your heart trips every time we touch you, even if were hurting you, you feel it differently. You can't tell me otherwise!"

I rounded on him, "I am not a piece of property, however I may or may not feel doesn't matter! The only way I would ever let any of you touch me that way, is if you drugged me!"

"You'd never let us touch you, huh?" he was smirking cruelly.

A bad feeling hit me again, I glared at him hatefully. "Never ever." Not like that.

There were limits. They had touched me, I had let them hold me at night, because they helped with the nightmares. Actually physically being intimate with them was a whole different level, one I would never go to.

"I guess it's a good thing your body tells a different story or we might've actually backed off," he grabbed my arms, slamming me up against the wall with an arm over my chest and I gasped as his mouth slammed down onto mine.

I tried to pull my body free, feeling my heart hammering in my chest and a wave of emotion and sensation alike ripped across me. The kiss, as hard as it had been at first, changed quickly. He pressed his mouth over mine more firmly, deepening it. And I let him.

My eyes slid shut, I stopped trying to push him away and my hands pressed against his chest as he kissed me more deeply, an emotion I wasn't used to was filling me. One I couldn't name. It made me breathless and achy and almost needy. And I didn't like it. I didn't like being weak.

My eyes snapped open and I tensed, and shoved him off of me hard.

He backed up, and we stared at one another, both us breathing hard. He glared at me, "Our connection means a lot of things. Deny it all you want, but I can tell you now, despite living countless lives, we aren't known for our patience."

"Are you threatening me?" I asked in disbelief.

A cruel look over came him again, "no, sweetheart, I'm warning you."

My eyes narrowed and I straightened, taking a step forward. "Yeah, and what will you do?" I sneered at him.

"You know exactly what we'll do," he took a threatening forward. We. We. We. He kept saying 'we'. He couldn't possibly mean what I thought he meant. "And you can't stop us. You wouldn't want to."

"You wouldn't dare."

And here I'd missed their company. I was as fucking nuts as they were.

He was in front of me, forcing me back as he boxed me in, his arms on both sides of me. "We take what we want, when we want. Were _The_ First Blood's, angel. It's what we do."

I shoved him away, panic building in me. They didn't actually think-I couldn't even finish the thought, I started to walk away. "You going to run away, tattle on me to Adam that I blew the whistle? You think he doesn't know you'd be against us during the claim? You think he's not planning for you to fight us on it?"

What the fuck?

The claim?

I turned, staring at him confused. He smirked at me, he didn't seem to know that Carter had spoken of a claiming of some kind. But this explained why Adam had been so angry when he kept using that term. I wasn't supposed to know about whatever that was.

"What did you think was happening between you and us?" Nate scoffed like I was an idiot. "You must have some serious intimacy issues if you can't read between the lines, that place really fucked you up, didn't it? What did you think, that we just wanted to be friends, that we only wanted to turn you, that only one of us would have you? You keep asking why you're here, well this is the reason. You're ours, baby, all of ours, one way or another."

Rage filled me, my sight flushed red and I slammed into him hard, shoving him backwards. He flew into the water with a huge splash, coming up with a gasp. I stormed out of the pool house.

The St. Delphi's were insane if they thought I would sleep with them all. I was a virgin for Christ sakes! The kiss Nate had just given me, wanted or not, had been my second. I had basically no experience with boys, and these were men. I should've known better. What the fuck did I expect when I woke up here? That look in Adam's eyes from the first time we met face to face, that dark promise. It made sense now.

Nate, the douche that he was, was right. I was a moron for not putting two and two together. I had wondered why they all flirted with me in front of one another, slept with me, used any excuse to touch me. I hadn't really thought much of it, my mind had kind of been elsewhere.

And a human screwing an entire coven wasn't completely unheard of, a coven was made up of individuals with their own preferences, it's not like they shared a mentality. I knew this wasn't the same thing as having some kind of sexual relation with them. There was more to it. The Claiming. Is that what that meant? I had never heard of a coven of First Blood's 'Claiming' anyone. They had their own mates, but never had I heard of the relationship being called by that term, never even heard or read anything like it. Group sex, threesomes, not unheard of. But Nate made it sound like it was that, but a relationship or something, ownership.

A shudder went through me, making me blush at the thought. There was no way, I had never heard of a coven sharing a human, not the way Nate made it seem. He made it sound like they wanted to own me. That I would, like, literally, belong to them. Well, fuck that, I didn't belong to anyone. I got the impression if I let these guys touch me, they would become possessive and controlling, more so then they already were. And I wasn't one to be controlled. Certainly not by a coven of vampires.

My first thought, confront Adam.

But, then what? Adam had already told me I was a prisoner and although I had agreed to play nice for the week, I got the impression they wouldn't keep their word. I guess I knew why.

I bit my lip, pacing in the room I had woken up in. I swallowed the lump in my throat. I wouldn't make it a mile before they caught up to me if I bailed, not again. The property was surrounded by woods on all sides, I had seen it for myself.

I pulled out the crumpled piece of paper, scanning it a little. Blood led to The Claiming. If my blood was what made them want to 'Claim' me. Maybe if I undid the weird blackness, they would leave me alone. And after Nate scared the shit out of me, I wanted that now more than ever.

Someone knocked on the door, bringing me out of my musings and Nate stood there, eyes normal now. He looked awkward, scratching the back of his head. "Um, can I have a word?"

"Is it 'sorry'?" I asked sarcastically.

He scowled a little at the wall behind me, but not at me. "Well, yeah. Look, I'm sorry about," he grimaced, "the pool house."

I raised my eyebrows for him to continue. "I'm impulsive and I don't think. I shouldn't have said all of that. I scared you, I'm sorry."

I stood up, sliding the paper back into my pocket. "Was what you said true? About me not getting a say, if-," I blushed, "is that all true?"

He took a step towards me, and I backed up a step. I didn't want them even coming near me now. He sighed as he registered that, "I didn't just scare you, I terrified you."

Well….yeah, pretty much. Yes.

I guess he read that on my face. His shoulders slumped.

I sat down on the edge of the bed, facing him. He took a breath and then walked over, sitting on the bed next to me. He chose his words carefully, "you need to stop denying who we are to you. I shouldn't have said what I did, about not giving you a choice. But Mara, there isn't really a decision to make, you are ours and someday, you will be, in all the ways that matter."

I shook my head, "th-that doesn't make sense. I-I would never even think about-I was trained to kill you! I was literally sent to kill you, and you came to kill me!"

"Kale told us he explained to you that it didn't matter who you are or what your intentions were. Either we would've found our way to you, or you would've found us. There is a reason we all make you feel the way you do, it's because were meant to be together."

Something occurred to me, "Are you guys gay?"

His eyes went wide, shouting, "No!"

"It was a valid question," I snapped, scowling at his stunned look. "You say were all supposed to be together, it sounded kinda gay, sorry!"

He looked like he'd be blushing if he were still human, all flustered looking, "not like that."

"How come I've never heard of a coven sharing a human before?" I asked him now.

He hesitated, "because they don't."

"Huh? Then ho-," he cut me off with a frustrated sigh, "because it never happens. It was a myth, at least we all thought it was, we don't even know much ourselves. All we know came from Adam's sire and that was centuries ago."

Kylar's words came back to me, 'the sire I killed'.

"Who was Adam's sire?"

Nate frowned, probably wondering why I was changing the subject all of a sudden. "Harken Vaughn."

That name, I knew that name.

I stood up, unable to sit still any longer and I began pacing. Something wasn't sitting right with me about this entire situation and that name was so familiar. Then it hit me. Harken Vaughn. I killed him. I killed Adam St. Delphi's sire, maybe even all of theirs. Oh god, if they knew that, they would kill me for it.

"I should get Adam, he can better explain the mechanics and stuff," Nate said hesitantly.

"No!" I blurted out, rounding back to him.

He frowned, "Mara, you should talk to Adam. Your heart is pounding, you're terrified."

"No. Not yet. I-I can't, I just can't, it'll make it real. Please, there's too much going on and all things considered, pretty sure the mechanics aren't that hard to figure out." I was blushing again.

He hesitated, "are you sure? You look freaked, you flinched when I stepped towards you."

"Because you scared me! It's fine. Please, Nate, don't say anything. He'll probably tell me himself anyway."

He gave me a searching look, "you're not going to do anything stupid are you?"

"Like what?"

"Like leave? Run from us again?" he crossed the room towards me.

I took in a shaky breath as he reached for me, forcing myself not to flinch or back away. "Don't run," he said gently, pushing the hair from my face, his touch sliding down the side of my face and jaw, until his finger was under my chin. Goose bumps exploded all over me where his touch went, and not a fear of sex but more of an excitement of the prospect. At least the sexual tension was already there, that explains some things, like why I feel the way I do when they touch me.

Oh god.

He tilted my face back up to his, "don't run," his gaze held mine. "I shouldn't have said what I did, about forcing you. We would never do that."

I grimaced a little. It was a little too late for that. "I'm sorry," he said softly, "don't run, okay? We'd find you anyway. We wouldn't stop until we did, now that we know what you mean to us."

Why did that not sit right with me, 'now that we know what you mean to us'? That really bugged me.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, backing up a step. "I'm not going anywhere," at least for another day, my fingers began twisting up together.

"I'll make you a deal, you don't run, I don't tell Adam I fucked up. At least that way I don't have to worry about him staking me. Deal?"

I grinned a little, "I can just imagine how mad he would be."

He laughed, nodding. "Oh yeah, he would be pissed."

We shared smiles.

I woke up later one that night alone and with a strange feeling, it was intense, washing over me and making me completely alert. I realized what it was instantly, it was a forewarning. Someone or something was coming.

I flew out of the bed, scrambling for the window and then dropping to the floor and peaking over the ledge. I could see shadows moving all along the property through the darkness, the place was surrounded and the harder I looked, I realized who these people were.

The School had found us.

Based on all of their heavy numbers, weaponry and stealthy assault, I had a feeling their intentions weren't very amicable.

I turned, staying on my knees as I crawled out of the bedroom and into the hall. It was quiet in the house, and I figured we had a minute or two before they cut the power and then rained down holy hell on our heads.

I couldn't believe how scared I was, my heart was pounding in terror, at them taking me back or killing me, but mostly at the thought of them hurting the St. Delphi's. There were so many of them and they all carried lethal ammunition. They all had guns, what if there orders were to kill the St. Delphi's and to kill me too?

We hadn't time to discuss a contingency plan for this. We hadn't even been here for a whole week.

Panic was building in me and I took a deep calming breath. Everyone's room was on this floor, but when I reached the closest room, which was Nate's and opened his door, he wasn't there. The bed was empty but messed up, the window was open, but he wasn't in here.

God I didn't even have a way to warn anyone.

Adam's was the next closest, but…

I turned to look at the closed door and figured Adam was probably still in his office. I had never seen him actually sleep, aside from the one time he spent in my bed after I'd run from the property. Then again, it's not like I went looking for him in the middle of the night. It seemed like he was always in his office, I had no idea what time it was. I was guessing two or three in the morning.

I went down the hall, and then pressed my ear to the door to listen if he was in there. As I started to open the door, I heard it, the power going out. Shit, they must've already known where the circuit breaker was.

I didn't hear anything right away, so I figured they were picking the locks.

I had seconds. Seconds.

What the hell do I do?

If they didn't know they were here, in the very least, I needed to warn them somehow.

I turned, going back to the stair case, and lifted up the table that leaned next to the railing. There was a glass vase and some kind of bowl on it. Perfect. I threw it down the staircase as hard as I could. It shattered, loudly, crashing down the steps, wood and glass and all.

For about three seconds complete and utter silence followed. Then I heard windows break, _everywhere_.

Every room nearby, windows shattered. I could hear thundering footsteps now, coming at me from all sides and I figured I had two seconds before someone made it to the hall and saw me.

Where did they even keep the weapons?

I should get to the basement. I had explored every inch of this place, aside from the basement. The basement might have weapons and there might be a way out that the School had no knowledge of. But it was a far distance from here. Fuck it. I should just get out of here.

Even as I thought it, desperately wanting to do that and just run, I didn't. I turned and jumped down over the railing. Hitting the floor and coming face to face with a nearly half a dozen armed soldiers.

They all raised their weapons, two dots appeared on my chest. Then I heard one of them speak into a walkie, "eyes on the asset."

I knew that voice.

"Take her!" I knew that voice too!

"Chase?" I asked in disbelief.

He paused, "Mara. You gonna make this easy?"

I couldn't help it, I scoffed, "now when have I ever been known to do that?"

He sighed, and lifted out a dart gun. They all did, I kicked out the leg of a table, sending it up in front of me as darts flew straight at my chest.

I didn't stay to fight, I had to get out of here, I was not suicidal and I wasn't about to be made a prisoner by my own friends. I also was not game for hurting the people I also considered family, but I would if I came down to them or me. I wasn't sure what would happen if I had to choose between the St. Delphi's and them, but I wasn't about to find out either.

They followed after me. I could hear the sounds of fighting in different areas of the house, but it was like every other turn I took more were there. It was startling and crazy to think they had all come just to kill us. And apparently, re-kidnap me.

This was just…

 _Un-freaking-believable._

Someone hit me as soon as I reached the door to the basement. The basement with the cells. We went flying down the steps, tangled up and rolling over one another. I reached forward, nearly breaking my wrist as I reached for the blade in the sheath in their boot, we hit the bottom of the steps. I brought it up, and there sword came out, meeting the blade that I'd plunged towards there chest.

I jumped up, and kicked out at their face fast and hard, sending them onto their back. I jumped over them, racing for the entrance to the pool. I didn't make it very far, when I reached the end of the hall someone else crashed into me, sending us through a door.

I rolled us but they did too and I ended up beneath them. They had the upper hand now, I swore and struck out as hard as I could, getting them in the jaw. I rolled us, they struck out, getting me in the cheek and I brought the blade down. Before it punctured their throat I was ripped away from behind and thrown across the room. I hit the concrete wall, and then crashed to the ground, groaning as my back ached.

Before I could get my bearings, I'd been lifted up and slammed back down onto the ground, hands wrapped around my throat. Then I heard a snap of chains. I glanced around blearily, and then jerked in surprise as Carter slammed into the person choking me.

Oh my god. Carter was loose now and he was feeding on whoever had just been choking me. Fuck, could he turn people? I didn't want to find out.

I scrambled backwards, picking up the knife on my way and ran out the door, mostly in fear.

Not good. If he managed to kill them he would come searching for me. They would kill him right away if they had to, and he wouldn't go down easy but the distraction might help me. I just hoped he wouldn't lead them to me.

At the moment, I was less worried about Carter and more concerned about not being locked into my old bedroom like a caged animal.

I raced down the hall as more people flew down the stairs.

I kept going, eventually reaching the pool house. I slid on some water a little as I ran down to the other side of the room.

Dropping down, I slowly and carefully slid into the pool soaking my underwear and shirt instantly, sucking in a deep breath as my head went under next. I put the blade under the waistband of my panties, cause there wasn't really another place to put it, other than Nate's t-shirt and my bra, I had nothing but the underwear on.

I slid down the corner of the pool, going as far deep as I could, keeping to this spot. I squeezed my eyes shut, holding my breath and then I felt it. They were in here. My eyes shot open and I pressed to the wall as tightly as I could as they searched the pool house.

When there lights flashed over the pool, I thought I was caught. But, they didn't check the bottom corners and after two and a half minutes, I was losing breath. Finally, I heard the pool house door close. I slid back up, breathing hard and low, laying my head back as I caught my breath. My chest was hurting now.

I heard gun shots upstairs. And I felt my gut clench. Oh my god. Had one of the St. Delphi's been shot? Shit, I was freaking out now.

I climbed out swiftly, going towards the pool house door, dripping wet.

I pressed my ear to the door, and heard someone as their voice as they walked past. I would know that voice anywhere, it was Jared. "No, asset is still on sight. The trace inside of her says she's here. Search every corner, every inch of this place! Find her! Do not kill any of the coven until she'd been located!"

He sounded pissed.

I swallowed the knot in my stomach, eyebrows furrowing. There was on a trace on me? Jesus Christ. It all made sense. The news reel wasn't how they knew they would locate me, it was the tracking device inside of me. It must've been put inside of me during the surgery after we'd returned to the compound. It was why Jared wouldn't let me carry a radio, why the mic between Nate and I hadn't worked when we'd gone down to L.A, even the phone had trouble sending just text messaging out. The trace in me was screwing it up.

Where was it though? Could I remove it myself or would it take a surgeon?

I reached up to my chest, lifting my shirt up, and began feeling all around where the scar was. When I reached the center of my ribs, I paused. I could feel something there now that I knew what I was looking for. Under the skin, it was just barely raised beneath the scar. A scar that wasn't raised at all anymore.

I held the knife tightly, raising it and then bit down hard on my lip as I cut into the skin. I made a deep, two inch long cut and then struggled not to gasp as I reached into the cut and dug around. I could feel it now, I was touching it.

This fucking hurt, I squeezed my eyes shut, falling back against the wall as I dug deeper until I'd pulled the small bead sized metal from the wound.

I stared at it, eyes blurry from pained tears. I turned it over, and inspecting it. My first instinct was to crush it, but I held back, barely.

I should destroy the thing, my eyes landed on the pool and a thought occurred to me. The water for the manor came from a very small lake in the woods. Thinking, I sucked on the bloody lip that I'd bitten into it too hard in an attempt to keep from gasping in pain.

I crossed the pool house, going into the bathroom and then dropped the device into the toilet and flushed it. Then I rushed out of the pool house and up the steps as quietly as I could. "Asset is on the move, heading west into the woods. Bravo, Echo, Beta, take the tracker and apprehend her!" Jared ordered.

Everyone seemed to be more or less in the main area of the house. I could hear the thundering footsteps. I snuck down the hall as quietly as I could. I wanted to run, god how I wanted to run. But I couldn't, every time I tried to just bail, my heart hurt. I couldn't abandon them knowing they might end up dead, because of me no less.

I heard something hard hit someone else and a curse from Kade, Jared snapped, "stay down. You move and I wont hesitate to fry you and yours! You shouldn't have messed with Mara, you put her in jeopardy! You have no idea what she means to all of us, you fucking leeches perverted her!"

What a douche.

Adam voice shouted back, sounding kind of thick as if he were hurt, "no, you and your scientists had no right going anywhere near her! She was always ours, and you could've killed her! What did you do to her blood?"

"Have you been feeding on her?!" Jared was going to kill them.

I just rolled my eyes and sighed.

All of them, they would all just egg each other on until someone pulled a trigger. Jared was furious and Adam and the others seemed to think I was a piece of meat. I went and slipped out into side of the house, going out onto the porch. When I got there, I threw my body into the guy patrolling this side. I slammed my head into theirs and then threw my fist into their face again. I stood up, lifting up their semi-automatic and then kicked out hard, knocking them out.

I rolled him over and then shoved him under the deck. He would wake up eventually, whoever this guy was. I checked the mag on the gun and then took a deep breath. I didn't want to shoot any of my team, but I couldn't let them kill the St. Delphi's.

I shivered a little, not sure if it were because of how cold and wet I was or if it were over what I was about to do. Steeling myself, I went around the corner and lifted the gun.

As I began moving across the window, I saw Adam and he saw me. His eyes widened just a fraction, but he didn't move or make any other sign of having seen me. I lifted up the weapon, holding it to my shoulder and aimed at Jared.

My heart was pounding and I hadn't even pulled the trigger yet. Jared, Asher, Cam and Nick, they all had guns on the others. I didn't have a choice. When they couldn't find me, they would kill them.

I swallowed hard, eyes watering a little, and that's when Jared turned and saw me. His eyes widened, and I pulled the trigger. The shots ripped through the window and the sides of the house as I let loose the whole round, not bothering to aim. I was trying to separate them all, give the St. Delphi's time to get out. Once they got out of the cuffs, knowing I was more or less safe, they would get out of the house.

I didn't want to go in there, and I didn't. Once I saw Adam help Nate up and Kade got Kale standing, I turned to run.

Nick crashed into me, I rolled us, striking out and then jumped back up. He raised the dart gun and I kicked it up into the air and then round house kicked him. He landed on his back, someone wrapped their arms around me with their weapon and I jumped up, flipping over them and twisting them, pulling the trigger on the others coming out of the house.

Breathing hard, I turned and ran down the driveway, climbing the fence going into the woods. Stupid highway better be down this road. I wasn't even properly dressed, I was barefoot, it was cold out tonight and I was sore from the fall down the stairs.

A car pulled up next to where I was running and the door opened. "Get in," Adam, ordered, reaching for me. The other vehicles were right behind us. I climbed in before they could get within a yard.

I blew out a breath, looking over my shoulder as two convoys followed. "They aren't going to let us leave so easily. What are you going to do?" I asked the driver, Nate.

He glanced back at me in the rear view mirror. "There's blood on your face."

Adam turned me to look at him and then lifted up my hands. "What happened?" Kade asked stiffly, looking back at me from the front seat.

I touched the shirt where the wound was under it. "They put some kind of trace in me, I needed to get rid of it before I left."

"You flushed it, that's why they went rushing off the property," Kale laughed.

"Smart, dividing them up like that, knowing they'd follow the signal. How did you know it was there?" Adam asked me, and then we all jolted forward when the vehicle behind us slammed into the rear of ours.

I swore heavily, and Adam steadied me and then pulled the belt onto me. "I heard Jared on the other side of a door saying there was a trace on me. It had to have been the cut down my stomach. I felt around for it."

"You smell like chlorine, how'd you end up in the pool?"

"I had to hide somewhere! Only so many places to go down there. Carter got loose, have no idea where he is now."

They reared ended us again and I scowled out the back window. "I was wondering why you were all wet," Nate mused.

They rear ended us a third time and this time Adam swore when he nearly flew through the space between the front seats.

They did it again and this time Nate hit his head and nearly drove us into the ditch. Kade reached out for the wheel as Nate got his bearings again.

"Don't we have some weapons?" I asked angrily.

"No, they stripped all of our weapons, we didn't have time to grab any when you took off into the woods," Kale said, reaching out as the other one drove onto the other side of the yellow line, coming up to us.

"Down!" Adam shouted, as gun fire rained down on us, on my side of the car. Adam pulled me down but I still got grazed twice, covering me with his body as the glass shattered. We were rear ended again. And now I was getting mad, blood was sliding down the inside of my left arm and the top of my shoulder from being grazed.

I stared down at the tainted blood all over my arm now, and slowly, my sight flushed red as the rage built up in me. It was like seeing through a red haze, one that filled my mind and made me angry. Adam was watching me, eyes slowly widening as if my own were actually going red. "Calm down, what are you-," I reached down under the drivers side and gripped a piece of metal and yanked as hard as I could. My shoulder exploded in shocks of pain as the metal gave.

Nate swore as the seat went down some. "What the fuck is she doing?" he swore as the car swerved a little and then we got rear ended again and my annoyance kicked up higher.

I had surpassed the point of mercy. I sat back up, and threw open the door. Before I could lean out, Adam gripped my arm, he was growling at me, eyes pitch black, "what are you doing?"

"Getting rid of the fucking problem, which is a little more than I could say for some of us," I snapped at him, shoving his arm off and turning back to the open door. I called over my shoulder, "hold onto me!"

Hands gripped my waist and I took a deep breath and stood up slightly, gripping the roof of the car as I hung out the door. I faced the car behind us on the opposite side of the road.

They neared our car again, and the one behind us backed off slightly. Once I got a clear visual of the driver, I didn't care who it was at this point, could've been Asher for all I cared. I raised the metal and as hard as I could, I whipped it at the driver. It went straight through the window shield and into their chest. Adam yanked me back and Nate stomped on the gas as their car nearly hit ours. Then it veered off into our lane and crashed into the escalade that had been behind ours. I didn't look back, not without seeing whether or not I'd killed them all and I couldn't handle the guilt that would fill me after I'd calmed down.

Adam pulled me back, yanking the door closed and locking it before pulling my seat belt back on.

It was silent in the car for a moment.

They all shared stunned looks, until they all burst out laughing.

"Pass that first aid kit," Adam said to Kade, who reached into the glove compartment.

Adam turned back to me, and began cleaning up my arm and shoulder, then the open wound in my chest.

"Take us to the airport," Adam said to Nate, who nodded. "We should go back to L.A. The manor should be done and no one will touch us there."

"What about the Council guard, or the dozens of reporters and police looking for her?" Kale asked with a frown.

"The Guard won't touch her without my say so, Lucian assured me that they would follow my lead. Lucian has been loyal to us from day one. We can move her in at dark, the humans won't come onto the property, not knowing there are a dozen guards watching over the place and now that our names have been cleared."

I bit my lip, looking away and thinking. Now more and then ever, I needed to find out what was wrong with me, why the School was so hard up for me. I was desperate for answers. "What's wrong?" Adam asked with a frown, turning me to face him.

"Nothing. It's just, I don't think hiding forever is a solution, and I won't do it, it's not in me to sit still like that. I was going crazy back at that place, not leaving, not fighting. I need to-," Kale cut me off. "What, hunt? Murder people? You're practically addicted to it."

"The Kill, yeah, I am in fact," I said rolling my eyes. "I was created for that very purpose, remember? I told you once already how much I enjoyed what I do. And they didn't care how I did my job as long as I did it. You were the only job I managed to fuck up royally."

Adam frowned, "why do you say it that way, like it's a title, 'The Kill'?"

"Because we don't have another name for it. We," I searched my word bank for the best way to explain this. "When we kill someone, not the fight, but actually kill someone, this, _feeling_ goes through us. Your vampires, don't you know what I'm talking about?"

They all shared looks, "no, we don't really feel anything, positive or negative when we've killed people. What do you feel?" Nate asked over his shoulder.

"I don't know, it's hard to explain. Like a shot of something goes through our system, it's not really emotional, it's physical, a deep sense of satisfaction, it makes you breathless and jello legged for a few seconds. Sometimes we'll even feel pleasure when a hunt or fight was particularly long. I was always that way, but I don't think everyone else was, it seemed to sort of build-up in everyone over the last year. Everyone's been going on assignment as often as they can, as of late."

They were all staring at me in disbelief now. Adam was quiet, staring at me intensely, "and, how do you feel when you kill a human?"

I tilted my head, shrugging, "never really killed someone that wasn't Other."

"That's one way to destroy any guilt they may have for what they do. Setting them up so that they feel really good after they kill a Supernatural? Damn that explains so much, I had wondered how it was so easy for them to just take out our kind without fact checking or anything. They wouldn't want to. Christ, what if there are more facilities like that, Adam? They could have an entire army programed to practically have an orgasm every time they kill one of us!" Nate sounded really freaked out.

Adam hesitated, asking me, "Do you feel like you need to go kill someone?"

I shrugged again, but he was right on the money. I had been restless because I hadn't killed anything since waking up there. "And you don't feel like you want to kill us, though? Even when you were at the property, I've never seen you behave like you might actually try to kill one of us."

I tilted my head, I wanted to lie about this, because if they didn't feel the same way, could look at me and even understand something like this? Could they not see me differently if I told them everything Would they judge me? Condemn me? Nate said it himself, apparently I practically have an orgasm- though I wouldn't go that far- when I kill an Other. "I don't know. I tried to kill you once already, I wanted to, badly. But I couldn't do it. The urge to never came back, at least not to end your undead life, punching you or kicking your ass, totally different story."

"That's weird. How do you feel when you meet one of us?" Kale asked, "Or when one of our kind touches you?"

Adam threw him a dark look, "nobody will ever be touching her," he growled.

"Not like that!" Kale snapped, glaring at his older brother, blowing out a breath, he turned back to me. "You know what I meant."

I sighed and bit my lip. I didn't want to talk about this, they would judge us, they would judge me. "Rage, violence," I admitted quietly. "Any time I'm within a metre of an Other, I know what they are, if I'm close to a group, I can feel them a yard away. In a room full of them, it's hard to control the urge to just, _attack_. Sometimes it's overwhelming, when I was in your club, actually when I was at the celebration, the entire time I was there, that was all I felt was the instinct to kill."

"Were they programmed that way, or do you think it's something genetic, inside of them maybe?" Kade said to Adam, who looked more and more worried rather than mad.

"We don't make you feel that way, though, right?" Nate asked, almost nervously.

"Not really, no. You piss me off a lot, but no, not on instinct. It's why I had such a hard time with your assignment. It didn't make sense. I've met hundreds from different clans and they all elicited the same urge to cause pain and murder and you guys didn't. I didn't understand why, I still don't. After you showed up at my hotel room I never wanted to be anywhere near you guys again because I rely on that urge to guide me, it keeps me alive sometimes, makes me react, gets my adrenaline going. I knew I'd be fighting with just me and not the darker side of me if I went to take you out."

"And you did, you came to the manor the night of the solstice celebration. You failed, you tried to kill me and you couldn't. I just, assumed you couldn't because of what you said, too much attention on you for the death of a potential council seat," Adam mused thoughtfully. "That wasn't it at all. You tried to, but you physically couldn't. I hadn't been entirely sure until now."

"I want to know why, is it the connection we all have or it something else? I mean, what the fuck makes you four so special?" they all shared looks. If they didn't know for sure, they had a theory. I also had a feeling they weren't going to share it. Annoyance was reaching its peak with these guys.

We didn't speak again until we pulled up to the airport. "Wait here, we'll see if the private jet is ready and we'll find you some clothes," Adam said to me, climbing out of the vehicle with the twins.

I leaned between the seats to get a look at Nate. Who was pale and uneasy. "You scared of me now or something?" I asked him curiously.

He shook his head, "no, I'm not scared of you, I'm scared for you more. They sent their entire army after you, not to kill you, but to capture you. That worries all of us, it means you're more important than the rest of them and we don't know why."

I grinned, trying to lighten the mood, "Not all of them were there, Lima and Delta team weren't."

He sighed, rubbing his face. "This is so complicated. You're a complete mess," don't I know it, "and the guys are scrambling for answers on how to help you and how to keep you alive when the Council gets wind of you."

I smirked now, "let me make this easy for you then," I reached forward, slamming his face into the steering wheel as hard as I could once and then twice. I let him go, leaning him over and laying his head against the window unconscious. "Sorry, Nate. I need answers and you guys just aren't working fast enough, really should've expected this, unpredictable, remember?"

Damn, I was basically talking to myself now. I was getting weirder by the day.

I climbed out of the car and then got into a taxi down the street.


End file.
